A track from the first Muse album, "Muscle Memory" was the band's third single, following "Uno" and "Cave." Lead singer Matt Bellamy wrote the song during a stay at the Greek islands, which is why he says it sounds like "a Greek wedding." Bellamy explained the song's meaning to Uncut: "It's about how different elements of our being - the soul, the body, whatever - won't let another element do what it wants to do. It's about the conflict of not quite knowing what it is you want. Not just relationship-wise, it could relate to the band as well, about how there are still people who will knock you down even though you are down already."

The title doesn't appear in the lyric. After putting together the song, band members of Muse had a hard time finding a name for it, so they opened the dictionary and took one word before the word "Muse" and one word after it, thus the song's name: "Muscle Museum."

In this song, a guy feels he is not getting back what he is putting into a relationship. The lyrics seem rather personal as Matthew Bellamy sings about playing "In every toilet," which refers to the shaky places Muse had to play in Devon when they were an emerging band.