There’s some great music coming out later this month, or at least the start of next month.
These two main albums happen to be “Black Holes And Revelations” by Muse and “The Eraser” by Radiohead frontman, Thom Yorke.
Although both have been leaked before there release, which really isn’t great, but considering the ease of sharing via the interweb is almost inevitable if a copy of the album is passed into “bad” hands…
Black Holes And Revelations is Muse’s fourth studio album and represents a change in their music… The first single “Supermassive Black Hole” showed this change to a large extent, combining the regular Muse sound with a more pop/disco style beat, with the aim of appealing to the masses or maybe just a change in artistic direction. You may find it nice to know that the whole album is not like the 1st single, Supermassive Black Hole, and that it does contain some classic Muse style songs aswell as some of the more modern ‘appealing’ type…
Although I don’t normally like when people go thru the album track by track and explain what is so damn great about each and every song, I may just have to do it now, so I can think of something more to say about this album… Here goes:-
1 –> Take A Bow This is a great intro kinda song, it has a slow build up, almost in the same way as Newborn, but ultimately more subtle. Once the song builds up, it becomes better and better, almost sounding like Sunburn in some places, especially with the vocals and Bliss too, with the ‘spacey’ backing… Generally a more typical Muse song.
2 –> Starlight This one is interesting, good by all means, but different… It has a simple piano backing, catchy but not really reminiscent of previous Muse. Again it has the Bliss style ‘spacey’ backing during the chorus, but as it is used to good effect, it works out nicely. The beat is maybe more pop-like than the previous song, but it is definitely recognisable as Muse. The bridge especially is immense.
3 –> Supermassive Black Hole Seeing as you’ve probably heard this, I won’t bother explaining in too much detail… Originally I thought “This is the new Muse, love it or hate it…” but after hearing the new album it isn’t really the case, Muse have only changed slightly, and they still make damn good music. And anyway, the more I hear it, the more I like it!
4 –> Map Of The Problematique Absolutely brilliant, easily one of the best songs on the album, it starts again with at great build up, quite unlike anything before, but amazing. You really have to hear it to realise how great it is… Intense drumming, heavy guitar riffs and and great vocals.
5 –> Soldier’s Poem This is a really chilled song, played with brushes on the drums, giving it an entirely different feel. It sounds slightly similar to one of the songs on Absolution, possibly Falling Away With You, but I’m not entirely sure. Personally I think of it as a kind of interlude song, but it is really good in its own right.
6 –> Invincible This is another relatively chilled songs at the start, with a military-esque beat on the drums at the start. The vocals are very different in this songs, reminded me almost of Keane, which I don’t think is a good thing. But as the song changes completely in its latter stages, it makes it far better than any Keane song…
7 –> Assassin A really great typical Muse song, something that big Muse fans have been waiting for in this album. Catchy riff, and great drumming. The start of the vocals sounds just like those in Stockholm Syndrome, which is a great thing… The chorus is different too, putting it apart from Stockholm Syndrome and pretty much any other Muse song for that matter.
8 –> Exo-Politics Cool intro, with the offbeat drums and another of the best songs on this albums. Would be absoluely immense to see live, especially with the chorus that the crowd could join in with. Finally also a bit of good guitar solo work from Matt.
9 –> City Of Delusion Completely different song, with an quick acoustic strumming intro, then adding an intricate bassline, some strings and finally exploding into an amazing song, including a bass solo and later an amazing trumpet solo (3:32). Overall a really good song…
10 –> Hoodoo Almost castillian like intro with guitar, then with moody vocals with guitar in the pauses (if you get what I mean). Eventually builds up nicely into thunderous drums and piano backing, worth a listen…
11 –> Knights Of Cydonia Horses can be vaguely heard in the intro, which then quickly changes to the main song, a driving (not like in a car) rock song with a solo-like guitar overlay to it. Trumpets or some other brass instruments then are introduced and it all builds up, almost like cavalry charging (maybe that’s a bit cliché…). It has excellent vocals at the end… “No-one’s gonna take me alive, the time has come to make things right. You and I must fight for our rights, you and I must fight to survive!” Ending in an all out ‘jam’ with the heavy guitar, bass and drums, brilliantly ending the album.
So overall, this is an amazing album, maybe showing a slight change in direction for Muse, but ultimately it is a worth sucessor to Absolution. Go out and buy it, or even better, preorder it from Amazon.co.uk