Kablammo!

Hm, tonight’s the first night in almost two weeks that I haven’t had at least a beer or two. Ah well, such is life.

Thoughts on Muse’s Absolution follow.
NOTE — This is a work in progress, and I’ll keep reediting this entry until I’ve finished it.
NOTE — As of over a month after the original post date, I’ve finally gone back and finished this thing. Heh. ^_^;;

• Intro: Mmm, footsteps. Segues well enough into the next track, I guess, but seems kind of pointless nonetheless.
• Apocalypse Please: Musically, this song reminds me of the whole first half of Origin of Symmetry — it’s got shades of everything there besides that wonderful distortion in «New Born». It’s nice to hear them hammering the living hell out of a piano for once, instead of the usual obligatory guitar, bass and drums. They’ve used pianos before, but not like this. Also, the vocal harmonies, simple as they are, are much appreciated and give the song a vibe that works well.
• Time is Running Out: This song bears a striking resemblance to «Muscle Museum», being similarly bass-driven and cleaving just as strongly to Muse’s quiet-loud-quiet-loud trademark. It’s also as catchy as «Muscle Museum», and makes an obvious choice for a single.
• Sing for Absolution: Inoffensive.
• Stockholm Syndrome: ::sigh:: If Muse showed development as artists on the rest of this album, which they certainly did for the most part, they certainly didn’t with this track. Every aspect of it, from the melody, riffs, and instrumentation to the lyrics, effects, and pacing could just as easily have been present on Showbiz or Origin… and it still had a chance of sounding fresh back then. Nothing wrong with sticking to what worked in the past, I suppose, but I just wish it didn’t sound so godawfully uninspired.
  If I had to pick a song from this album that I guessed would be featured in a terrible action movie, it would definitely be «Stockholm Syndrome».

• Falling Away With You: It’s a real shame that the lead guitar and the vocal part have the exact same melody for the majority of the song, because it does nothing but detract from both. What remains is fairly bland.
• Interlude: Perhaps it was just a riff that Muse didn’t feel like turning into a full song, but at least there’s something to it, and it leads very nicely into…
• Hysteria: Energetic and pretty fun, this is standard Muse fare. Best part: the happy little instrumental bit that is the bridge.
• Blackout: Placed as it is between two high-intensity rockers, this song is in the perfect place for getting its ass skipped for being so downtempo, which is a real shame since it’s such a nice and depressing song. As much as I want to like this song, though, I really can’t bring myself to listen to it all that much, since I feel like yelling at Muse to get on with it and get to the part of the song that isn’t boring. Props for trying something different, though.
• Butterflies and Hurricanes: This is an awesome song, but it could have been even better. I don’t mind a song that slowly builds until it’s really loud, then drops away to nothing and builds up quickly to a final crescendo, except when the «drops away to nothing» part of that plan leaves you dropped to nothing for too long and gets you mired down in an annoying piano bridge. Other than that, I approve.
• TSP: The verse part’s swell, but the intro and chorus are swill.
• Endlessly: As with their other albums, Muse’s most interesting work on this one comes in the form of an atypically light song. In this case, «Endlessly» has a fresh new sound, at least insofar as Muse are concerned, a sound much more electronic than usual. Also, it’s a damn catchy song, and quite possibly the best on the album. In any case, it’s my favourite du jour and I’m going to stop writing about it because the noise of my keyboard is distracting me from its beautiful tones and sentiments. Listen to this song. And then listen to it some more.
  Seriously, I could listen to this song endlessly.

• Thoughts of a Dying Atheist: A slightly pompous name, perhaps, but the lyrics serve it well, and it’s a good song. Especially the «yeah yeah yeah» part at the end of the chorus.
• Ruled By Secrecy: Gentle and sweet, as well as horrifically depressing. Excellent. It’s great to see a band respond to success by putting such depressing lyrics and nice piano riffs in their songs.

That’s all, folks!

2 Comments

• Me says:

  September 25, 2003 at 2:53

  Premonition? No, I prefer to call it magic. Or intuition, or just a bunch of lucky guesses.

  Reply
• Arne says:

  September 25, 2003 at 9:08

  Strange that you would be reviewing an album before it has even been released… premonition, perhaps??

  Reply