A Muse Retrospective - Part 1: Overture

So, let’s break up the monotony a bit and talk about something other than films for a change. That’s something I bet you thought I’d never say (or type, but whatever). Obviously this is a film blog, and the vast majority of stuff I talk about on here will be film-related, as that is the area I have the most to say about. But today, I feel like talking about music. Specifically, one of my favourite bands; Muse.

For those who are blissfully unaware of what they are missing, Muse are a three piece alternative rock band from England who released their first album in 1999, and started to become more popular in the mid 2000’s, before becoming a tad mainstream in the past few years, with the help of the London Olympics. They’re well known for their fusion of traditional rock tunes with more symphonic piano pieces as well as frontman Matthew Bellamy’s unique and unmistakable vocals. They’re also the first band I ever really got into, and were my first step into my casual interest in music.

With their seventh album Drones being released earlier this year, I think it’s time for a bit of a retrospective on their discographic history thus far. Although keep in mind I’m not quite as in tune with the music lingo as I am with films, so you’ll have to excuse the slightly more generalised approach to these reviews. That being said, let’s get cracking!

Muse made their debut in 1999 with Showbiz, named after one of the best tracks of the album. Looking at the album cover, we see a woman in white walking around some alien planet thing. I’m not really quite sure of the meaning of this or how it ties into the album, but hey, its nice imagery, and the deep blues and blacks definitely fit in with album’s melancholic tone. When placing the Muse albums in order of excellence, Showbiz is the one no one seems to know what to do with. It’s definitely not the worst, but not really their best either, although this is still a great album. Sunburn and Muscle Museum are the popular songs, and while they’re good, I still stand by Uno and Showbiz being the two best songs on the album, and even now, two of their best songs ever. The rest of the album ranges from very good to pretty good or quite good to serviceable, depending on my mood. Cave, Escape and Unintended are other noteworthy songs, whilst Falling Down brings up the rear. It’s not awful, I’m just not a massive fan, and it takes a little too long to get to the climax of the song. I don’t really give albums ratings, but for the sake of this retrospective, I’m going to make an exception. Showbiz gets four stars (out of five, for simplicity)

In the space odyssey year of 2001, Muse started breaking the ice a bit more with their acclaimed follow-up, Origin of Symmetry. Many fans consider this their best album. Ehhhhh, I’m not too sure. Don’t get me wrong, this is one of their best, and makes up part of the superstar trio along with Absolution and Black Holes & Revelations, but I’m not sure if it represents their best work. Let’s have a look. The album cover shows a field of tuning forks growing out of the ground against an orange sky. Well, they look like rugby posts, frankly, but I think tuning forks is what they were going for. But it’s iconic, simple and memorable. Like Dark Side of the Moon’s prism, although not quite as easy to draw all over your textbook (I drew many-a-prism throughout GCSE English). Anyway, this album went for more of a space-y experimental approach, and it works pretty well. It certainly has a unique sound, and you can always detect that style when you hear B-sides recorded around this time (which, by the way, tend to be much underappreciated). The album definitely has a very strong start, with the phenomenal New Born and is followed by several other great songs, including the popular Plug In Baby and fan favourites such as Hyper Music and the heavy guitar-gasm Citizen Erased. My personal favourites from the album are these four essential classics, but other notable songs include Space Dementia, a haunting yet elegant piano-based piece, and Bliss, a much lighter and pop-y track. While the songs succeeding the landmark Citizen Erased aren’t bad, per se, they are a bit of a falter. Screenager never really gelled with me, and while I once used to love Dark Shines and Megalomania, the former started to fall out with me, suffering slightly from Falling Down’s syndrome of taking too long to get really good, while Megalomania became unimpressive after I discovered Ruled By Secrecy from their next album Absolution, which I feel is a much better and more epic version of the same kind of sound. However, there are still no particularly bad songs on the album, and it’s still a pleasure to listen to all the way through, and I can see why people place it as their favourite. I’ll give it four stars. Heck, how about four and a half.

On to their third and probably best album (again, my opinion), Absolution. With the release of this album, Muse had made a name for itself, and the Absolution Tour’s success proved just how popular they’d become. For their third outing, Muse went all-out and decided to do a thematic album about the apocalypse. Moving on from the more experimental and space-y sound of before, their music came a little closer to more traditional rock with heavy guitar riffs such as in Stockholm Syndrome and Hysteria, while still preserving and upgrading their symphonic sound, with use of a full orchestra in Blackout.

Album cover? Love it. I am a big fan of Storm Thorgerson’s work, and would love to be able to

produce images half as good as some of his album covers, so there may be a bit of personal bias here, but I think this is probably the best Muse album cover so far. The image depicts the shadows of people falling to Earth. Or are they ascending? Is this the rapture? Or are angels falling from the heavens? If they are angels, then where are their wings and robes as depicted in religious artwork? Could this be a damning of contemporary religious imagery while still implying some kind of higher power? Why do they all look featureless and identical? It’s this ambiguity that draws me to this cover, and all the questions it raises make it even more fascinating. Despite being a film studies student, I’m generally not a massive fan of over-analysing media like this, but I can’t help but marvel at the mystery of this image and what its true meaning is.

Let’s get on to the songs. This was the first Muse album to use short transitional tracks, namely Intro and Interlude, making complete playthroughs of the album feel more like a whole. Consequently, this feels like the first album that really works (thematically, anyway) when played all the way through, and if I’m going to listen to any Muse album in that way, this is certainly a top pick. I’m going to break the mould a bit here and not automatically default to Times is Running Out or Hysteria as my favourite songs of the album. Yes, of course they’re great songs, and are highlights, but Absolution’s best has to go to Thoughts of a Dying Atheist. Sporting some absolutely cracking guitar work, mixed with the emotional vigour and desperation of a man on the brink of death makes for a compelling listen. Obvious favourites include other heavies such as the aforementioned Time is Running Out and Hysteria, as well as Stockholm Syndrome and The Small Print, but I’m also a big fan of the slower, more emotional tracks such as Blackout, Endlessly, Falling Away with You and the previously discussed power-house, Ruled By Secrecy. Again, there aren’t really any bad songs on the album, and even the lesser songs I’m about to list are all still great tracks, but if I had to pick, Apocalypse Please, Sing for Absolution and Butterflies and Hurricanes bring up the rear. It’s not really their fault, blame the Shuffle feature on iTunes; it always seems to play these tracks, and they’re unfortunately not good enough to hold up to as many listens as I’ve been subjected to. Thanks, Apple. Regardless, this is still a great album, and it’s clear why this was the one to cement their popularity. Five stars.

Okay, so this went on way longer than I intended, so I think I’m going to split this into a three-part post. Stay tuned for Part 2, where I’ll be discussing Black Holes & Revelations, The Resistance and The 2^nd Law. See you then!

Footnote: Damn, this post has been ready for ages and I somehow forgot to post it. Well here it is, a little later than intended but oh well. Once again, this year I will be posting on New Year's Eve, so stick around for that. Hope you're all having a great Christmas, and I'll see you on Thursday.