So it came as a surprise to some when "Madness," the second single from Muse's latest album The 2nd Law, shared more musical DNA with classic Depeche Mode and – dare we say it – dubstep than anything else. "Madness" eschews Muse's usual guitar-driven pomp and complexity for an electronic pulse that's far more minimal and quietly emotional than most anything in the band's extensive catalog.

"I kind of felt like that would be a good direction to go in for us, because everything we normally do is quite overblown and theatrical and all that stuff," Muse frontman Matt Bellamy told Radio.com in an exclusive interview. "I was quite into the minimalism of it. So it was written in that way. It was just me alone in a room, jaded, basically [laughs]. That's how the song emerged."

Apparently Muse's fans were into the song's minimalism as well. "Madness" not only reached No. 1 on Billboard's Rock Songs and Alternative Songs charts, it's nominated for Best Rock Song at this year's GRAMMYs.