Jonny

Well firstly, this is my first review of any kind, especially of music. I?ve done my best though, thought it was worth it for this album.


Take a Bow

The song starts quiet with a piano intro, which can be heard being played before Space Dementia live, and progressively gets louder until a bass line is brought into the equation. Still getting progressively louder now, Matt?s voice comes in. Very monotone voice up until the full effect of the song comes in. All the effects are in now, sounding very electronic with a pull on the bow in ?take a bow?. The song is getting more aggressive now, has a very similar synth backing to Bliss. A guitar solo can just about be heard. Harmonic vocals are playing a part now, ?you will pay? and ?you will burn in hell? can be heard, nice. The song finishes on a very different note to that of how it started; it?s much more intense and noisy which is for the better I think. Always thought Muse are a better ?rock? band rather than anything else.

Starlight

The bass line starts this song with it kicking in immediately, the most dirty bass sound I?ve heard from Muse, very fuzzy. After a while a harmonic? jingling almost comes in, not sure if this is a piano or one of Matt?s guitars with some effects. The drums are also in now, with what sounds like some form of clapping to go along with them. Matt?s vocals are very pop-ish now, until we get to the pre-chorus. It sounds like U2, maybe a little too much. Then we finally hit the chorus, massive sounding bass with a shed load of synth affects backing it. Then we reach the penultimate lines? ?Our hopes and expectations, black holes and revelations.? They got the title of the album from these lines... Not sure why they chose these, to follow on with some form of theme? We?ll see with the rest of the album I guess. This song is one of the stand-outs for me, the fuzziness of the bass I adore. It?s also what I expect to be released as a single, but Chris has said that it?s maybe a bit too predictable to be released as a single?

Supermassive Black Hole

This one?s been out for a while, and you?re either going to love it or hate it. As has been said before, very prince-esque vocals. Some lyrics you?d not expect to come from Matt?s mouth though ?Ooh baby, don?t you know I suffer?? Come on now, seriously, ooh baby? Let?s not go there. Apart from those strange few lyrics though, it?s a good song with thumping drums and a strong bass line and one of the most recognisable guitar riffs I?ve heard from Matt. It?s a song that you?ll either love or hate. In that sense, I do love it as a song but I hate it as a piece from Muse. This is the most non-Muse song you?ll find on the album. If this is the only song you?ve heard so far, don?t let yourself be put off by it. It?s definitely a singular song on the album in terms of style.

Map of the Problematique

Starts with some sort of synthed-up guitar riff, the bass line and keyboard are quick to follow. After the intro, Matt comes in with the vocals. It sounds like he?s got some sort of echo on them which really adds to the feel of the song, bloody ace. We?re up to the chorus now, with what sounds like both Matt and Chris singing these. It starts to get heavier towards the end; the last 10 seconds of this song are absolutely immense. Dom?s drumming is shining now; he?s going absolutely wild on them. Not really got much more to write about this song, it?s a bit samey all the way through, but that?s not bad. It?s an ace song.

Soldiers Poem

Really can?t be arsed writing anything about this, it sounds like a bunch of knob heads who got hold of an old bass guitar with Chris doing backing vocals and some harmonics in there too. Not my liking at all.

Invincible

This one starts soft, with what sounds like Matt playing with his Fuzz Factory, sending the guitar wild. Then it gets a bit more normal, and a drum beat appears that sounds like you?d hear soldiers marching to, a rat-tat-tapping of the snare. Matt?s vocals come in ?There?s no one like you in the universe? which is basically the theme of this song. ?Tonight we can truly say together we?re invincible? again, following the theme of the song, probably referring to his girlfriend in this. It starts to get a bit less soft and calm, as a proper bass line comes in and as we?re nearing the end of the song, Matt blasts out a guitar solo. The song ends on a fairly heavy note, with all guns blazing instrument wise, but vocals are still very similar.

Assassin

This has been played before live, it?s been available to download as a bootleg for a long time, so people have heard this before, and it?s probably got some major expectations to live up to as a studio version. The song starts with a guitar riff which sounds very similar to what you?d hear from SOAD, and then it all kicks off. Dom going absolutely wild on the drums not heard anything like this from him before, Chris getting a very strong bass line in there too. When the vocals kick in though, things all go a bit pear-shaped. You lose the hard style of the song, and it all turns kind of empty with the vocals making most of the noise. It doesn?t last long though, as we get to the chorus. Matt singing in falsetto here and it sounds cracking. Chris doing backing vocals again and sounds great behind Matt?s vocals. ?Assassin is born? can be heard at the end of the chorus, which at the end has another wild moment from Dom on the drums. It?s pretty much the same story for the rest of the song, with another rendition of the intro more or less at the end, sounds bloody fantastic.

Exo-Politics

The title of this song doesn?t reflect it as such, from listening to the lyrics a few times over, it?s actually more a spacey-alien kind of meaning. This song has also been played live before, which up to the release of the album was known as ?Burning Bandits?. The song follows the same structure, with the same amazing bass and guitar riffs, but lyrically it?s totally different. Now we?re hearing ?When the zetas fill the sky? rather than ?Stop asking yourself why?, I think zetas are some form of alien life form? But anyway, let?s get onto the song. It starts with a brief tapping of the drums from Dom, and then a bloody fantastic riff comes in from Matt, sounding very sexy with whatever effects he?s got down on it. The bass kicks in now too, the bass line is one thing I absolutely loved from the bootleg version of this song, so nice to see it?s unchanged. We?re now upto the chorus, with some wacky effect taking us into it; we now hear what Matt?s deranged mind thinks about. It?s basically along the lines of, if aliens do come down to earth will us as people find out? Or will our leaders keep it in secrecy. It?s also still got the solo from Matt that could be heard on the live bootleg which is a nice addition. This song is almost certainly my favourite song on the album; it?s kept most of the musical elements from Burning Bandits, and then kicked them up a notch. I?d have a guess at this probably being released as a single too, it?ll do bloody well if it does I can tell you that now.

I can't be arsed writing any more now, so i'll update the post later with more songs.

h22s

Good stuff, but I think it'd be more interesting if you focused less on analyzing every song piece by piece and more on giving your personal opinion. What you thought was good, bad, etc - leave something for us to discover when we listen to it, but let us know what kind of quality to expect.

_unknownST

good review, what he (^^^^^) said above is the exact critisism that i got writing my first review. Good review though.

ive only heard supermassive black hole and like you said you will either hate it or love it and i hate it. Im a fan of muses other stuff but i was quite disapointed at that song. I doubt that theyll improve on absolution.

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_unknownST

Shaun

i think its a piss poor album.

one good song.

Callum

Not a mark on there other stuff, but it stil ent bad, definitely worth owning. Supermassive Blackhole and Map of the Problematique are pretty good.

Jonny

Assasin? Exo-Politics? City of Delusion? Knights of Cydonia :wow:

imported_Paul

The Muse album is absolutely fantastic! I love it dearly. I thought when Muse had Supermassive Black Hole on the radio it would be a shitter, but the album just ooozes in pure awesomeness. As said by Jonny above, City Of Delusion, Knights of Cydonia, Assassin and Exo Politics are all fucking awesome, songs to soundtrack your summer too. The slower/moving tracks like Hoodoo and Invincible are really brilliantly done.

Overall, i prefer Origin of Symmetry to it, but this album comes at a close second.

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h22s

I must say I like the second half of it a lot more than the first. Assassin and Exo-Politics are great.

Assassin

I think the album is amazing. A lot different than what I was expecting. The last half of the album is epic!

_unknownST

Ive grown to love the album and like supermassive black hole.

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_unknownST

h22s

Yeah, me too. It took time but I like the album a lot now. Except for that pesky "Knights of Cydonia" borefest

Sephian

I haven't been the biggest fan of Muse. I'd only listened to their singles before this album. I bought the album even though Supermassive Black Hole wasn't as good as Time, Plug and Hysteria. I absolutely love it. Favourite have to be Exo-Politics, Knights of Cydonia, City of Delusion, Invincible. I'm listening to their old albums now and they're great too. I have to say, i don't get the criticism of Soldiers Poem. Ok I admit at first I thought instantly, worst song on the album. That has been replaced by Hoodoo. I really like Soldiers Poem now, it grew on me. Anyway thats all i have to say really...

9/10