Muse – HAARP
Live albums have become a really strange thing for me. It is cool to hear some of your favorite songs sound in a live setting but why not just listen to the original. Muse release a collection of their recent gigs Wembley Stadium last summer. The album does contain a live dvd show as well which, makes this collection a bit more worthy. When you listen to a live album you hope to get something new from it. Like a rare song or perhaps an unusual cover something to make the fan want it. After seeing Muse live twice, I did have very little interest in listing to this record.
The album runs at a crisp fourteen tracks containing all the essential Muse material. You start off with “Knights of Cydonia” that really whips up the crowd and it got my attention as a ripping performance of that song. The leading right into “Hysteria’ is a hell of a one two punch on the audience that will leave them gasping for more. The big singles “Supermassive Black Hole” and “Butterflies and Hurricanes” make their welcomed appearances. The true treat of the album was hearing the classic “New Born” done live with its extremely loud intro and churning vocals from Matt. “Stockholm Syndrome” might be my favorite Muse song as you get it all here. The little after song jam session was a nice touch.
As live albums goes this one is pretty cool. The set list was an amazing blueprint. Also, if you get this in the shops you get the gig’s DVD with it that makes the purchase a little more sensible. I do see on my shelf another Muse live CD/DVD package and quite frankly how many of these do we really need.
By John Siwicki
Muse – Knights Of Cydonia
“Knights Of Cydonia” is one of Muse’s crowning achievement. It is a six minute plus epic monster. The intro is about two minutes long with a horn section and a gigantor, violent, nasty, dirty riff that is almost to big to handle. Some might see this song as to big and bloated for its own good. Lyrically, its not all there but they don’t try and give you to much. They repeat the key lines over and over and just hit you over the head with that riff. This is the third single off “Black Holes and Revelations” and it represents an interesting point for the band. They hit a peak and what happens after this will be fun to see.
By John Siwicki
Muse – Super Massive Black Hole
What do you think of when you think of Muse? Giant infectious riffs? Funky basslines? Unusual harmonies? Dark lyrics? Innovative? Annoying? Overproduced? Abstract? Well, whatever you’ve thought of Muse in the past, go into this song with an open mind.
You might be fooled into thinking this is just another space inspired piano cum guitar standard Muse song from the title of the song. You really couldn’t be any further from the truth. Supermassive Black Hole sees the three piece take a completely different musical direction than any of their past material and sees them delve almost into the world of electronica or dance in places. The vocals and ideas could be compared to Prince in places with the words “baby” thrown in for good measure.
The song itself grabs you and pulls you in from the first 5 seconds with heavy distorted guitars running throughout the entire song and the song has an intriguing experimental feel. The middle eight sounds completely out of this world, a fusion of powerful experimental rock and electronica which works in perfect harmony.
We are reminded that deep down the song is still Muse only by Bellamy’s trade mark falsetto voice and Wolstenholme’s funky bassline. However this time, the falsetto runs throughout the song and is weaker than we all know that Bellamy is capable of.
Really, Muse have created this piece of music which will just make people see them into a new light. It is very hard to give it an overall score because of many reasons. Muse’s fans might wonder where they have heard the bass before and listen to it for the first time feeling completely lost or just not understanding where it all went wrong. However this is Muse reaching out to an entirely new audience and attracting many new fans no doubt.
For the people the song captures, it will seem addictive for the first few listens and leave the listener starving for another fix. Supermassive Black Hole at the end of the day is like marmite, you’ll love it and can’t get enough or you’ll just simply hate it. But whatever you do, don’t ignore it.
By Helen Daw
Muse – Hysteria
Muse are back with there second single from their album Absolution. Hysteria is a classic Muse hard tune. The track features some amazing distorted guitars and such a brilliant vocal from Matt. The song is catchy and has a great appeal to everyone. Muse really shows what they are capable of. These guys are truly one of the best in the world at the moment. This is one of those songs that never leaves your head. “I want you know I want you now