Muse
http://www.muse.mu
styles: melodramatic Brit-rock
others: Queen, Elbow, Mansun, Rush
 Black
Holes and Revelations
Warner Bros., 2006
rating: 4/5
reviewer: keith kawaii
At this point in their career, Muse are making exactly the kind of music they
want to make. So, right off the bat, the whole Radiohead comparison thing? It's
redundant. I think we're all starting to get that. Matthew Bellamy is a British
man with an extremely flexible vocal range. He likes to combine major and minor
chords in pleasing ways, and he likes to rock out. Black Holes and
Revelations is probably the least restrained album of 2006, which for some
is a blessing, for others a pretentious annoyance. It is, however, a focused
album. Muse seems content attempting to craft their perfect record, and within
an established formula, they are certainly getting there.
Black Holes flows seamlessly, starting strong with "Take a Bow," my
favorite track on the album. It builds around a tense verse of what I'm assuming
is anti-Bush sentiment, and releases with enough genuine bombast to last the
entire album. Such a dynamic musical discharge only highlights other tracks'
comparatively standard pop/rock sensibilities. The choice to follow the
proggiest song with the poppiest was a carefully considered one, I'm sure. But
it works. Similarly, "Soldiers Poem" breaks up the album's rhythm-heavy middle
section with a delicate acoustic number, spiced with a brief passage of Freddie
Mercury harmony. The formula is undeniably moving, particularly when stripped of
the heavily produced thud of drum and bass. Naysayers will surely hone in on the
beefier tracks, and to be fair, being pounded with verse after verse of
high-fidelity distortion can become grating, but at the same time you have to
question why you're listening to Black Holes and Revelations in the first
place. If you came for the melodrama, for the double octave riffs, for what Muse
is essentially all about, then you will be thoroughly satisfied. If you had your
idea of what Muse could become, or what they should have been, then your
listening experience was doomed from the start. Personally, I'm glad these guys
are still getting spun. If something as twisted and playful as "Knights of
Cydonia" can be a radio hit, then who knows what the casual music consumer is
willing to embrace. I'll keep listening.
1. Take A Bow
2. Starlight
3. Supermassive Black Hole
4. Map Of The Problematique
5. Soldier's Poem
6. Invincible
7. Assassin
8. Exo-Politics
9. City Of Delusion
10. Hoodoo
11. Knights Of Cydonia
 Absolution
Taste/East West, 2004
rating: 4/5
reviewer: filmore mescalito holmes
With their third studio album, Absolution, the English power trio Muse
have struck black gold! Full of ominous gut-wrenching delicacies, intricacies,
and eccentricities, the lyrics hit note for note with the fitting musical
backdrop, but your enjoyment of this album depends more on whether you think
focusing on the bitter ends of this failed experiment called "civilized" society
just being pessimistic and depressing than the album itself. Absolution
paints pictures of the destruction of beauty, beauty in destruction, shame in
the failure of human existence, outright torment, and... what's that? Do I hear?
Yes, it sounds like a touch of hope. It's a veritable Pandora's Box of
exceedingly compelling orchestrations.
After an intro of marching feet that melts into a crushing piano, "Apocalypse
Please" sets the tone for the album, with Matt Bellamy's tortured screaming of
the prophetic chorus, "This is the end of the world!" "Stockholm
Syndrome" speaks to the forced apathy that grips the world where people no
longer get angry at the right things. Road rage and meaningless violence reign
but no one rages at the government and other control forces that maintains the
upper five percent's eighty-five percent share of the wealth while they feign
generosity in the form of table scraps [Sure they bitch. Boy howdy, do they
bitch, but, aside from the truly motivated, they'll just go to work in the
morning]. Like certain kidnap victims, many among us are quite ill, victims of a
disease called Patriotism whereby a resident of planet Earth religiously and, in
his/her mind, righteously loves a certain marked off and originally named piece
of land more than any other for the simple fact that their parents fucked there.
Patriotism is mental disorder that, if left unchecked, will... uh... I think I
got a bit off topic. Sorry, just thinking about that song "Lets My Hatred Grow."
Absolution is an emotional, philosophical, sophisticated, poetic, and
beautiful piece of rock music that does this pathetic planet proud. Listen and
learn.
1. Intro
2. Apocalypse Please
3. Time Is Running Out
4. Sing For Absolution
5. Stockholm Syndrome
6. Falling Away With You
7. Interlude
8. Hysteria
9. Blackout
10. Butterflies & Hurricanes
11. Tsp
12. Endlessly
13. Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist
14. Ruled By Secrecy
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