Music Review by Bill Rendall
Absolution - Muse
If you like bombastic music with a progressive influence you will find that Muse delivers the goods in spades. Matthew Belamy is clearly the creative core of Muse. He is the main songwriter in addition to singing and playing guitar and keyboards. However, Wolstenholme and Howard are no slouches and provide able support. They provide a strong driving rhythm on the heavier songs. At times Howard's drumming style reminds me of Jimmy Chamberlin back when The Smashing Pumpkins were at their peak.
Belamy sings in a high voice with an undeniable similarity to Thom Yorke of Radiohead, although to my ears Belamy has a more pleasant tone. I am not a fan of falsetto singing but it is becoming so prevalent that I grudgingly accept it.
Muse's first two albums showed patches of brilliance. Their third album, Absolution, is consistently strong. It immediately grabs my attention with pounding piano chords at the start of 'Apocalypse Please'. I can imagine a piano teacher rapping Belamy over the knuckles for striking the keyboard so violently, although he claims to be an untrained pianist. Anyway, I love the uninhibited piano attack.
'Blackout' features a beautiful string arrangement and Belamy sings in his most wistful voice. This song effectively captures the atmosphere of an epitaph.
'Butterflies and Hurricanes' is the showpiece of the album. I admire the way Belamy slips a Rachmaninovian piano solo into the middle of the song. But it makes me suspect he has had the odd piano lesson.
I also admire the way Belamy uses 'Adagio for Strings' by Samuel Barber for the brief 'Interlude.' Belamy substitutes a heavily distorted guitar for the strings used so effectively in the movie Platoon.
Absolution has a wonderful variety of songs. Some feature heavy guitar riffing, such as 'Stockholm Syndrome' and 'The Small Print'. Others feature the lighter sound of piano and strings. The order of the songs emphasises the contrasts.
I recommend the DVD of the Absolution Tour concert at Glastonbury which captures the energy of live performance of most of the songs from the Absolution album and a few songs from the first two albums. Admittedly some of the subtlety of the studio recording is missing and the distortion effect is applied too heavily to the vocals. For a three-piece band they make a big sound playing live, although I suspect they have augmented the sound with prerecorded music. More recently they have taken my preferred option of adding a support musician for live performances.
I recommend Absolution as the best album by Muse. There isn't a bad track on it. Their subsequent album, Black Holes and Revelations, veers too much to electronica for my liking but it does have some worthy tracks, such as 'Knights of Cydonia'.
Band Members:
Matthew Belamy - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards
Chris Wolstenholme - Bass, Vocals
Dominic Howard - Drums