Muse: listen to the new single “Cryogen”, a preview of the imminent album “The Wow! Signal”

Muse are back with a new single, “Cryogen”, the first taste of their upcoming album “The Wow! Signal”, due out on June 26, 2026. The track introduces one of the album's thematic threads, as the band gears up to take it on the road with a North American amphitheater tour: kicking off July 2 at Summerfest in Milwaukee and wrapping up August 31 at the Hollywood Bowl.

In the track, Matt Bellamy builds an image of extreme dependency, translating it into a cosmic metaphor: the tormentor takes on the guise of Europa, Jupiter's icy moon, while the protagonist perceives himself as a scattered fragment on its surface. The lyrics dwell on a polar, uninhabited landscape, caught between ice and isolation, building to a chorus that lays bare the narrator's emotional paralysis, suspended between falsetto and melodic tension. "Cryogen" was written and produced by the trio alongside Dan Lancaster — who has previously worked with Bring Me The Horizon and Blink-182 — with additional production by Aleks von Korff.

Listen to “Cryogen” below.

"The WOW! Signal" takes its title from one of the most discussed astronomical mysteries of the twentieth century: a 72-second radio signal picked up in 1977 from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, whose intensity and bandwidth were striking enough to suggest a possible extraterrestrial origin. The astronomer who spotted it circled the sequence "6EQUJ5" and scrawled "WOW!" next to it, helping to cement the episode in both scientific and pop-culture lore. According to the band, the album revolves around a combination of cosmic mystery, existential tension and openness to the idea of contact with something greater than ourselves.

Tracklist for "The WOW! Signal":

1. The Dark Forest
2. Nightshift Superstar
3. Shimmering Scars"Cryogen
4. Be With You
5. Hexagons
6. The Sickness In You & I
7. Unravelling
8. Hush
9. Space Debris

As early as the start of 2025, bassist Chris Wolstenholme had already hinted that work on a new album was underway, noting that the band was weighing up its recording future following its previous releases with Warner. "I guess 2026 will be the year of the new record, barring any surprises," he had said.

In the meantime, Muse have kept up their live activity with a European tour that included a date at Mad Cool Festival, where they stepped in for Kings Of Leon.

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