Muse
Black Holes & Revelations

Release Date: 2006 | Tracklist

After the in my opinion slightly lacklustre Absolution this band had nowhere to go up. The trio was musically more gifted than most of their compadres, sadly as always this made Absolution an overindulgent slab of electronically influenced rock, and it was up to Muse to tone that down on their next album and make an album that floated among all the synth and keyboard madness going on.

Guess what? Muse gave a big middle finger to all those people that hated Absolution for being masturbation and tried even harder to be incomprehensible on their next album. However, given the fact that Absolution already was like a grade 3 kid's art project (too many components held together by too much glue about to fall apart), it's even more amazing that to a degree this one actually worked out!

Contrary to Absolution, the techno beats here work very well. Map of the Problematique is the premier example of this, with a gorgeous keyboard intro later descending into madness, accompanied by some nicely bleak lyrics to top it all off. Starlight begins with a cute drum intro, but the piano entering just after propels the song to great heights, with a chorus with some nice power chords for the catchy factor. This is the way Muse should do it: use the keyboards and all the other gadgets at their disposal to make a song.

However, some songs are just way over-the-top synth proggy goodness that would make Dream Theater proud. Take A Bow is overly constructed, the synths are everywhere but the song has no beat and never seems to take flight until the end, with a disappointing climax and Bellamy whining about how politicians suck and will burn in hell for their sins. Yeah, Matt, you're absolutely right, but I don't think we need another singer trying to tell us that, especially not when the person your vocals rip off (Bono) tends to be politically active.

Matt becomes even sillier when he goes into falsetto mode on Supermassive Black Hole, crooning out lyrics worthy of Britney Spears. Sure, the chorus is catchy once or twice, but when you realise the whole sound effect thing in the background has been done to death by the same band, you realise the whole song is nothing special and the lyrics on top of it make it qualify for guilty pleasure of the year.

Muse also seems to like outer space (Exo-Politics, Knights of Cydonia), and contrary to their peers who like the love topic a lot more they seem to feel the need to be lyrically over the top as well as musically. Horses and laser guns in the same intro is really weird, and despite the fact the climax the song builds up to actually works, the lyrics still sound like they're overly pretentious. If Muse was around twenty-five years ago, they could have produced the Star Wars soundtrack.

Exo-Politics questions the fact whether the Earth will be conquered by aliens, and why our leaders aren't telling us what the hell we've done to deserve that. It may be in fact be because the politicians don't care about us, or even better, because they are the aliens. While it musically works, with a nice chorus and all the synth keyboard goodness Muse is known for, Matt Bellamy must have gone the stereotypical British drinking route when he was writing the lyrics, I'm positive.

And then there's just some songs that don't work at all. Hoodoo makes absolutely no sense and I have no idea what it's doing on the album. City of Delusion is reminiscent of the flaws of Absolution: too many elements trying to wind itself through the same song, and a chorus meant to be catchy but failing to take off knock the song down to some of the new Muse lows.

So that's what this album is, overall. A collection of good, catchy, stellar Muse tracks and a collection of failed experiments on the side. People who will like Muse will like this album, people who don't won't be changing their mind any time soon, and people who are undecided might as well pick this album up so they don't have to worry about Radiohead comparisons. Probably the best Muse album to date, and although that's not saying much, this album had some much better moments than I'd expected. If only Muse would create some more songs, they could be an even better band. Now they just fall under the overly populated class of "average British bands trying not to be pop but not being quite anything else, either."

Recommended Tracks

Starlight
Map of the Problematique
Assassin
Exo-Politics

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3.7 great

Rank: #175 for 2006