We're not Radiohead (Absolution - Muse)

Member Name: bailey_kipper_uk

Product:	Absolution - Muse
Date:	29/07/08 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Full of great singles

Disadvantages: Also has some disappointments

Following on from Abbey Road I reach my next album that I own, it isn't very much further through the alphabet and is Absolution by Muse (this is going to take a long while to get to Ziggy Stardust).

Muse in the early days were often compared to Radiohead, though have since outgrown this, partly due to Radiohead's rather odd change of style (I saw them the other week at Rock Werchter and it was a bit strange). Muse have their own style of music which is apparantly called New Prog, though as this makes no sense to most people I like to think of it as Alternative Rock. Absolution is their 3rd album though I don't actually own their 1st, despite owning 4 others. Muse are a 3 piece band consisting of Matt Bellamy who mainly does lead vocals, lead guitar and keyboard (busy guy), then there is Chris Wolstenholme (Bassist and backup singer) and Dominic Howard (Drums). This albums spawned 6 singles, 4 of which made it into the top 20 of the Official singles chart, the other 2 were download only.

Onto the album then...

First track is a short 20 second Intro which gradually builds up the sound of people marching, which leads into the next track.

Apocalypse Now (I mean Apocalypse Please), is the 2nd track and introduces the upbeat lyrics "This is the end of the world". The song starts with some thumping piano in the same beat as the marching. It also introduces Matt's powerful high end range, similar to Thom Yorke (Radiohead), it's a good song to start the album off properly and the thumping piano works well with the vocals. 8/10 (There's better tracks to come)

Time is running out (quickly get on with writing this review), is one of 3 songs on this album that end up getting 10/10. I love this song, the chorus builds up into something that you have to rock to (ROCK!!!), some great drums and heavy guitar sounds along with some more great vocals at all ends of the scales, quiet to loud, soft to powerful, and of course low to high. It was the first fully available single and understandably so. 10/10

Sing for Absolution is another great song with lots of high pitch singing from Matt. There's a great guitar solo starting after about 3 minutes and the last 2 minutes of the song are much heavier than the first 3 which until the solo are quiet restrained and gentle. 10/10

Stockholm Syndrome is 3 seconds shy of being the longest song on this album (I only say this as I read the most recent review on here that said it was a short song...?). This is a great guitar song, which is reflected brilliantly in the fact that it's available for Guitar Hero 3 (which is a great game, to be reviewed at some point). I'd love to learn to play the guitar properly so I could learn to play this and Knights of Cydonia. Rock on! 8/10

Track 6 takes the Rock down a level with the track "Falling away with you", it's also the first non-single track since track 1. This is a weaker song of course but by being less heavy does give the band a chance to show they can do something other than heavy and shouty. Though obviosuly there is a bit. 7/10

The next track is an interlude (skip it), and then you get...

Hysteria (always gets a massive cheer when you hear it played live), as it's instantly recognisable from the outset and then really kicks in after about 20 seconds. Another great rocky head banging chorus, and one you can definitely sing along to (not always easy with Muse). 10/10

Well thats the end of what I consider the good stuff, there's 6 more songs that take up the next 25 minutes. But anyway on with the review.

Blackout is first and is ok, there's some fairly solo singing from Matt at the start where he is accompanied by some light cymbal tapping and a bit of strings. This carries on throughout but builds up gradually until the end where it fades out again. 6/10

Butterflies and Hurricanes, is of course about the Butterfly effect and how you doing a small thing can "change the world". Listening to it, I realise it's better than I gave it credit for. It's another single off the album, though it was the 6th and final one from the album. There's a brilliant piano solo in this song after about 3 minutes, which I like being than I can play the piano well, I'll have to get hold of a Muse Piano book I think. 7/10

Tsp (The small print) is the next song and begins with some heavy drumming at a fairly high pace, the singing then kicks in and this feels a lot faster than anything before it (If I had a metronome I'd try and prove it, but I have better things to do). It's a decent song, it's the shortest proper song on the album so if you don't like it then there's not too long to wait, but it keeps going right till the end. 6/10

Endlessly is the 12th song on an album that is apparantly only 52 minutes, but feels longer, in a good way. It's about endless love, so a bit more happy than the end of the world. 6/10

Thoughts of a Dying Atheist is track 13 and is another decent song, maybe I haven't listened to it enough though. Looking on I tunes, tracks 12-14 i've only listened to once ever, compare this to track 3 which has had 18 listens. It's actually quite good as a song, but not a single. 7/10

Ruled by secrecy is the final track and is a touch disappointing, there's some high pitched singing going on but unlike every other song that I could hear over my typing I can't make out much of the first couple of minutes lyrics. The piano kicks in after about 3 minutes and this feels like a good song that he enjoyed playing but maybe couldn't decide what to sing about. 6/10.

Summary
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So that's it for album number 2 in my collection. It's another good album (obviously). I hadn't really considered buying any Muse albums at all until about a year ago when I just randomly decided to download a couple of tracks to see what I thought. Luckily I downloaded Sing for Absolution and I was sold. It's a good album although the first half is far too strong for the second half not to sometimes want to be skipped, so that you can start over again.

Summary: Good album, worth a listen.