Album Revew: Muse - Black Holes and Revelations (5 / 5)

Finally, I found my album of the year, and why didn't I find it earlier? Why did I ignore Q Magazine's 5-star rating, one of only three they gave out this year? Why did I ignore my friend, who recommended this months ago? Muse's Black Holes and Revelations is a masterpiece album, a perfect blend of rock, pop, and electronica; high concept and cheese; mellow, plaintive moments and bombastic wall-of-sound bursts.

"Take a Bow" opens with film score-like synths and then builds to a faster, almost clubby mid-section before bursting forth with Queen-like guitars and multi-tracked vocals. It's totally absorbing, weird, and cool at the same time, a stunning opening track. It feels like something Radiohead might do, but just as you think you're settling in for some gothic allegory of death and outer space--themes that will be revisited later--Muse snaps you back with "Starlight." A lovely, conventional, mid-tempo pop-rock love song. Little bursts of piano underscore the chorus, hand claps drive the rhythm throughout, while Matthew Bellamy's plaintive vocals, work well over the changing soundscape. He does vaguely sound like Thom Yorke, which is why the Radiohead comparisions are easy.

"Supermassive Black Hole" and "Map of the Problematique" both sound Depeche Mode-inspired, albeit by different periods of that band's career. Swaggering "Supermassive Black Hole" pulses with hard electric bass bursts, scratchy electric guitars, and synths. Think DM's 1993 album. "Map of the Problematique" is a real standout among standouts. It sounds more like Violator-era Depeche Mode, opening with a really cool synths, guitar, and piano sound environment, which builds before the first verse hits. I did a little research while reviewing this album, as there are lots of interesting trivia about it. Great example in this song: Opening line "Fear and panic in the air" is a reference to the planet Mars, a recurring theme on the album, and the setting of the cover photo; Mars' twin moons are Phobos and Deimos, the Greek gods of fear and panic, respectively. I cast my vote here for fourth single.

Mellow "Soldier's Poem" gives us a short break from the hard-hitting first four tracks. War is a theme in several songs, most obviously in this track, which evokes a similar sentiment as Keane's "A Bad Dream," that of the melancholic soldier fighting a war in foreign territory: "How could you send us so far away from home when you know damn well that this is wrong?" In keeping with the military idea, "Invincible" opens with marching drums and lyrics like an encouragement to the soldier in the previous track ("Don't give up the fight; you will be all right..."), but then adds some space-age electronic to take this struggle to galactic levels ("...'cause there's no one like you in the universe."). Musically, it's quite a beautiful track, that turns a really interesting corner during it's bridge that reminds of something from an '80s sci-fi movie.

Anarchic "Assassin" comes on strong, fast, and loud with staccato electric guitar. Again there's some touches of Queen-like vocal tracking. The opening of "Exo-Politics" reminds me of Weezer's "Tired of Sex," (A song my former band once covered, incidentally), with its sharp drums and a strong bass line, before it gets to the melodic choruses. It's about an alien invasion from the Zeta Reticulans. Not sure who they are, but it makes for an interesting song.

Dramatic "City of Delusion" opens with acoustic guitar, switching to electric guitar during the chorus. The band throws in some fast strings and bass synths too, making it fairly manic, almost Middle Eastern sounding, but then there's some Mexican horns in the bridge. "Hoodoo" opens with tinny Spanish guitars like an old-fashioned western waiting for Clint Eastwood. Bass and strings further flesh out the beautiful melody. Then...surprise! Chord-heavy classical piano interrupts the mellow proceedings, sending us into melodramatic rock territory, before returning mellow again for the final bit.

Horses and ray guns open the sprawling, unusual "Knights of Cydonia." Apparently the cowboys from "Hoodoo" have been called in to fight the alien invasion from "Assassin." Cydonia, incidentally, refers to a rock formation on Mars that looked in a human face in an early NASA photograph, due to shadows at the time the photo was taken. So this is what the album cover is all about then: The four horsemen of the apocalypse, albeit with little plastic horses, defending Mars from the Zeta Reticulans. Got it! The track is mostly instrumental, fast-paced, and gothic. Drums, horns, synths, and heavy-feedback guitar forms the central melody. An unusual, but good choice for the album's third single--it became the band's third top 10 hit a couple of weeks ago.

Black Holes and Revelations is a real journey of an album. It's heavy on the drama, but doesn't take it too far, reigning in the band's excesses at just the right moments. It draws on a number of unusual sources, throws out both thoughtful and bizarre lyrics, but most importantly, is consistently interesting and enjoyable the whole way through, without a single bad track in the bunch.

Best tracks: Take a Bow, Starlight, Supermassive Black Hole, Map of the Problematique, Invincible, Assassin, Exo-Politics, Hoodoo, Knights of Cydonia