Black holes and revelations --- Muse --- 2006 (Helium 3)
Do what? You've never heard Muse? Pull the other one mate! Laugh? I nearly paid my television licence! And so on.
No, I freely admit that although I've heard
of the band (and caught a few short minutes of a live performance on TV) I have never yet listened to a full song, never mind a full album. This one --- probably their most popular and successful, if I read things correctly --- has been sitting on my hard drive for over a year now, patiently awaiting its turn, and that turn has now come. Hey, I'll probably hate it, or be totally disappointed with it, but comes with the territory. Course, I could be completely blown away by it, become a big fan of Muse or at the least not regret having downloaded the album.
Let's see how it pans out, eh?
Need I recount who the band are? Oh, all right then: formed in 1994 in the picturesque county of Devon by three schoolfriends, Muse were successful right from the off, with their debut EP scoring high on the indie charts, though it took an American label to have faith in them and release their first album, which failed to set the charts alight, just scraping into the top thirty. It was the second album, “Origins of symmetry”, that got them a top three hit, with the following “Absolution” hitting the coveted number one spot and confirming them as a hot property, so that by the time this, their fourth album was released, comparisons with the likes of Radiohead which had dogged their early days and first album were forgotten, and “Black holes and revelations” again took the coveted top spot.
It's said Muse integrate many types of genres and styles into their music, such as progressive rock, electronica, jazz and heavy metal, but this album extended that influence and broadened their musical spectrum to pull in classical, latin and Italian music. It's also heavily political, with some fairly angry lyrics and a decent grounding too in science-fiction themes.
So it opens then on fast, frenetic keyboard with backing synth as “Take a bow” accuses unnamed (but hardly unknown) political figures of corruption and evil, and of spreading their dark message beyond the borders of his own country, the vocal of Matt Bellamy low and understated but loaded with contempt. The keyboards get faster and more electronic, almost moving into trance territory (is it? I'm not certain what trance is to be honest, though I have an idea) as Bellamy's raw guitar cuts into the mix, and Dominic Howard gets tougher on the drumseat, pounding out the rhythm as the song heads towards its powerful climax, Bellamy warning
”You will burn in Hell/ For your sins!”
Strong opener, and it gets better with the very new-romantic “Starlight”, a lovely buzzy bassline from Christopher Wolstenholme leading the song, the keyboards (also courtesy of Matt Bellamy) very poppy and upbeat, and the song contains the album title as he sings
”All of our hopes and expectations/ Are black holes and revelations.” After the slowburning opener it's a decent shift in tone, and shows that Muse are certainly capable of a lot of variety in their music, and this continues into “Supermassive black hole”, with a real hard rock guitar sound and a falsetto vocal from Bellamy, some sharp electronic drum patterns from Howard giving the song a very artificial feel, while the vocals are almost soul in their style, the song keeping the tempo high and upbeat. The style veers back into electronica/dance territory for a while with “Map of the problematique”, Bellamy sounding like a wounded Bono, sharp staccato synthesisers stabbing the melody from all sides, as the song slides more towards a rock theme now, though retaining the new wave style synthesisers that characterised the sound of so many bands of the late eighties.
Everything slows down, and indeed is stripped down for the blues ballad “Soldier's poem”, with Matt this time sounding to me like Fran from Travis (he'll probably hate that, if he ever reads this, which will never happen), with a sort of swirly, swaying chorus of backing vocals, coming close to Queen territory, and with some fine double bass from Wolstenholme. It's only a short song, but very effective, then we're into low humming synth and high-pitched (maybe hi-strung?) guitar with heavy organ and rolling drums to take us into “Invincible”, some wobbly and weird keyboard effects (maybe pitch-bent?) rising like the cry of a banshee over Matt's passionate vocal. Howard's drums beat out the rhythm in a military style until about halfway in, when he kicks into a more natural rhythm as the song progresses.
“Assassin” then takes us into a faster, more rocky vein with some good electronic elements, with a sort of moaning, crying style vocal and some great hard guitar work, then “Exo-politics” scales things back a little, still hard rock but not as fast, with a pretty angry edge to it, especially the guitar. Great backing vocals on this song, and a very catchy hook. “City of delusion” has a lovely fast acoustic guitar intro, with a great bassline and then some powerful strings as the song kicks into high gear. An excellent bass solo in the second minute, joined by talk-box guitar and then more guitar and synth really opens up the tune as the strings slide back in, then a fantasically mariachi trumpet from Marco Brioschi is a star turn, making this one of the most interesting tracks on the album.
That has
got to be Spanish guitar at the start of “Hoodoo”, although it's not mentioned, then some lovely slide takes the song in as Matt's understated vocal is so low it's almost indiscernible for a few moments, as beautiful strings merge with gorgeous piano, which then fires up on all cylinders in a real classical way, hard rolling drums coming in and Bellamy's vocal rising like an avenging angel, the whole thing putting me in mind of the very best of the Divine Comedy. The song then ends on the fragile, beautiful guitar on which it began. Stunning.
The album closes on the sounds of horses galloping against a synthy background before heavy drums start slow then increase in tempo as “Knights of Cydonia” gets going with an almost old-western-movie melody, trundling along on the back of whirring synth and rolling drumbeats. Electronic dancy rhythms are counterpointed by sharp guitar stabs and choral vocals, with Bellamy's own vocal ranging from the low, quiet to the loud and passionate, even desperate, at one point only backed by the bass, with vocal harmonies coming to join him as the song ramps up for its end, drums rising like smoke out of the mist and guitar punching in to take control.
So, what was the end result of this album? Did I get into the music of Muse? Sorry, let me just check my download of their discography … thirty percent. Good. Soon be able to listen to more. And I
need to listen to more! Hey, I may be late to the party, but at least I've arrived!
TRACKLISTING
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