I don't want you to adore me, don't want you to ignore me..... (Showbiz - Muse)

Member Name: Red Devil

Product:	Showbiz - Muse
Date:	19/08/00 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: More good, original music, Matthew Bellamy's vocals and the good use of bass and percussion

Disadvantages: Ignorant comparisons to Radiohead - they are similar but it's just a style of music

Well my old review of this album was truly awful and was deservedly lost down in the nether regions of opinions written about Showbiz. The line I've used for the title (taken from track 2 Muscle Museum) is half right. You will adore them but there is no way you can ignore them...

Muse have had critical success since the release of Showbiz in 1999. NME made them best newcomer and a string of nominations have followed for various awards but they have never recieved the public recognition that Coldplay and some other new acts have had. Along with JJ72 however, I believe it is they and not the more tranquil Coldplay that are Britain's most promising newcomers in recent years.

The album starts with Sunburn, a typical track for the album and one that is therefore well placed as an introduction. A good song it sets the mark well but is easily surpassed by the following two tracks. First comes Muscle Museum, one of the most 'angst' tracks on the album, and like most Muse songs, contains a steady beat, gradually building up with both bass and percussion. The song also contains one of THE lines of the album (look at the opinion title) and was released as a single. One song that wasn't released as a single and is worth buying the album for by itself, is track 3, Fillip. Now I dont know where the title is but if anyone ever read Beaver Towers then maybe it is linked with that - I hope so :o) This song truly epitomises the album and features probably the highlight with the build up of noise before the climactic ending - if you are going to have sex to any music, without being crude, then do it to this because you and your partner would then have a guide for when to go faster and when to go slower....anyways....

After the first three 'heavy' songs, comes Falling Down which is a far gentler and softer song, more akin to Unintended than any of their other more well known songs. Then comes Cave, a surprising choice as a
single - it is good but not as good as some other songs that were not released. The title track, Showbiz, is a song that eventually grows on you after a time (although with me its cos it reminds me of certain things so i might be biased :oP). It has a repetitive sound, and mainly just repeats the following lyrics - forcing our darkest souls to unwind and pushing us into self destruction (or words to that effect). It is a song that gets in your system and then stays there, again building up at the end.

However, after the build up has ended comes the softest and, almost, un-muse like song on the album -Unintended. One of the best love songs of recent times (along with At My Most Beautiful by REM and True Love Waits by Radiohead) it is gentle and demonstrates how good Matt Bellamy's voice is. Along with Thom Yorke and Mark Greany, Bellamy has the best voice in music at the moment and reaches unbelievably high notes in the chorus when he sings 'I'll be there as soon as I can but I'll be losing many more than pieces of the life I had before'. Try singing it and you will realise how hard it is to reach the notes.

After Unintended comes another single, Uno, which is good and after a song thats name currently escapes me, comes Escape, another of my favourites on the album, which again was surprisingly unreleased. In saying that, most of the songs would have made good releases. After the weakest song on the album (again I forget its name) comes the album closer - Hate This And I'll Love You, which is more in the Unintended tone than other songs. All together the songs make a really good album, sounding far better than a debut effort. Produced by The Bends' producer, the Radiohead comparisons are always present and though there are similar tracks and styles, Muse are very much a band in their own right.

New single Plug In Baby has already been widely praised (particularly by Radio 1's Jo Whiley) and is releas
ed on March 4th. A new album comes in the spring.

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