Intro
Apocalypse Please
Time Is Running Out
Sing for Absolution
Stockholm Syndrome
Falling Away with You
Interlude
Hysteria
Blackout
Butterflies and Hurricanes
The Small Print
Endlessly
Thoughts of a Dying Atheist
Ruled by Secrecy
Months ahead of the release their third album, Muse described their work in progress as "fat as fuck." Emboldened by the international success of Origin Of Symmetry, the Devon trio embraced the opportunity to indulge their most experimental urges in its creation, recording Dom Howard's drums in a swimming pool, and Matt Bellamy's guitar parts in a field, then ransacking a castle to re-purpose cartwheels and cattle prods as 'instruments'.
The result was the darkest, heaviest, boldest album of their early career. From the apocalyptic groove-rock of Time Is Running Out to the extraordinary art-metal of Stockholm Syndrome, Absolution, the trio's first UK number one album, is the sound of an inspired, fearless, ultra-confident band who knew their time had arrived, and the world was listening.
Dismissed initially as Radiohead copyists, this was the record that blasted Muse into the stadium-slaying stratosphere, earning them their first No.1 album and a triumphant but also tragic headline slot at Glastonbury after drummer Dominic Howard’s dad died hours after their performance.
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
Other albums released in September 2003
- Dance Of Death - Iron Maiden
- Vintage - Michael Bolton
- Amazing Grace - Spiritualized
- Death Cult Armageddon - Dimmu Borgir
- Alexisonfire - Alexisonfire
- From the Ashes - Pennywise
- Heavier Things - John Mayer
- Her Majesty the Decemberists - The Decemberists
- It Still Moves - My Morning Jacket
- Mescalero - ZZ Top
- The Wolf - Andrew W.K.
- Get Born - Jet
- Higher - Harem Scarem
- Reality - David Bowie
- Billy Talent - Billy Talent
- Permission To Land - The Darkness
- Thirteenth Step - A Perfect Circle
- Couldn't Have Said It Better - Meat Loaf
- The Eyes Of Alice Cooper - Alice Cooper
- Heretic - Morbid Angel
- The Long Road - Nickelback
- North - Elvis Costello
- Results May Vary - Limp Bizkit
- Some Devil - Dave Matthews
- Testimony - Neal Morse
- Untying The Not - String Cheese Incident
- The Dresden Dolls - The Dresden Dolls
- The Jethro Tull Christmas Album - Jethro Tull
What they said...
"Reason, referencing and the constraints of genre took their leave of Muse long ago. As the possibility of any band coming forward to better them disappears faster than the last ‘revolutionary’ garage rock act, we're left to salute them as the best rock band of our generation. So scream for the guitar album of the year and sing for Absolution. God knows, we'll be singing." (Drown In Sound)
"Muse have widened the goalposts and re-established what rock is allowed to stand for. Next to ‘Absolution’, even something as majestic as ‘Elephant’ sounds so painfully small. Which, of course, means that there’ll already be an army of dead-eyes queuing up to destroy it as pomp or prog or metal or bluster. But that’s its beauty. Like Ulysses or The Matrix Reloaded, Absolution makes as much sense as you decide it’s going to." (NME)
"Apocalypse Please, the turbulent opening cut, is stitched with almost Liberace-esque piano pounding and fluttering guitar arpeggios. It's too bad that vocalist Matt Bellamy doesn't bring as much ingenuity to his singing – on brooding, quiet tunes such as Ruled by Secrecy, it's as if Thom Yorke and Jeff Buckley are the only singers he's ever heard." (Rolling Stone)
What you said...
Philip Qvist: Muse is another one of those "Marmite" bands that you either like or dislike - with no grey area in between. I'm one of those who like Marmite - and Muse, especially their early stuff, although I know that many won't like this band at all.
My first introduction to Muse came in late 2001, when I saw their cover of the Nina Simone classic Feeling Good on MTV. Shortly after that, I heard Plug In Baby and New Born and although the songs interested me, I was not intrigued enough to buy Origin Of Symmetry. I felt the same when Absolution, and its tons of hits, came out nearly two years later - but that all changed when Black Holes And Revelations, and its memorable cover, came out, which I simply had to buy - and I did.
Suddenly I was looking out for their other albums, and within a couple of years I had their first four albums in my collection (well actually five, as The Resistance came out during that period). I still insist that their first four are their essential albums - with Origin Of Symmetry and Absolution being my absolute favourites.
Absolution definitely has a different variety of songs on it, from the bombastic (Stockholm Syndrome), to the quieter moments (Endlessly), to the theatrical songs (Sing For Absolution and Butterflies And Hurricanes), and everything in between (Our Time Is Running Out). The album might be one of those where you need to pause for a bit before carrying on, but there is a good reason why Absolution sits firmly on my list of Top 50 albums.
Many pressings have all three band members as contributing to the songwriting, but in reality Matt Bellamy was the chief songwriter, along with his role as singer, guitarist and keyboard player. That said, it has to be mentioned that he has found the perfect foil in Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme - quite possibly one of the most underrated rhythm sections around at the moment; with the latter providing the memorable bass track on (my favourite track) Hysteria.
As already mentioned, I don't think the band, or Absolution, is to everyone's taste, but I like it a lot to get a very high mark from me this week. It's just a pity that they couldn't keep the momentum going after Black Holes, but in hindsight it was probably an impossible task.
John Davidson: I'm on the other side of the marmite on this one... I have tried really hard to get my head round Muse but not found a way in .
The music is too dense, the tone too frantic in its melancholy and Matt Bellamy's voice is like nails down a chalkboard.
As with most bands that have a unique style and which you don't get, pretty much every song sounds the same. I know that's unfair and that if I liked them I'd hear the nuance, but from the outside it's a wall of noise and incoherent wailing. I normally give the albums we review a couple of listens, but I could barely finish the first go-around.
Greg Schwepe: On a review over a month ago I wrote how I liked very few “new” bands that have come about since the year 2000 (or just slightly before). After further review, turns out there were more “new” ones I liked than I thought. And one of those favourite new bands was Muse. Had read an article about Matt Bellamy in one of my guitar magazines and at the time there was a bit of a buzz about them. Bought a few random Muse CDs, and what do you know, I really liked them. They were kind of an amalgamation of everything I liked crammed into one band; crushing guitar riffs, proggy keyboard sections, soaring vocals, and a great rhythm section. At times, a little “modern rock” and at times a bit “industrial” almost. I then had to buy the rest of their catalogue, which included this week’s pick of Absolution.
A slow rolling keyboard line begins Apocalypse Pleas” and we’re off and running. Synth lines also throughout this one. More keyboards at the beginning of Sing for Absolution. Slow and slinky sounding with a little Bellamy falsetto. “Is Muse just a keyboard band? Well, get to the next track and you’ll see…”
Stockholm Syndrome comes ripping next with a fuzzy guitar line and heavy drum backbeat. Now you find out that Muse is not “just a keyboard band.” Some more shredding from Matt Bellamy and you see how you get a little bit of everything with this band.
Am not going to do a song-by-song review of the remainder of the album, but if you stuck it out to Falling Away with You, you’ll finish the album and not be disappointed. The remaining tracks are “different but similar.” From a sonic standpoint you end up with a lot of cool fuzzed-out guitar, more keyboards, and hyperactive drums and bass. This is why I was excited to check out even more of Muse’s catalogue after that initial 2CD purchase.
Another 8 out of 10 on this one for me. Was excited to further my exploration into this “new” (to me!) band. And when they rolled into my town for The 2nd Law tour, well there I was, getting to hear Stockholm Syndrome live.
Gus Schultz: My introduction to Muse was through my kids. They didn't strike a note with me then and really don't now. There are a couple of tracks on this album that are listenable for me but only on a rare occasion. From what I understand their first three or four LPs were good, then sort of a decline after that. I can't really be a judge of that, but for me this band and a lot of early 2000 bands didn't interest me at all. I find a lot of the music from that time period hasn't aged well along with a lot of 90's stuff of which I hear some of on this album, namely Radiohead and some overdriven Smashing Pumpkins style guitar. All in all I can think of a whole lot of worse bands and music that came out of that time, so it's not a bad listen it's just not for me.
Paulene Ashmore: My first introduction to Muse was Sunburn which was on a free CD on the front of a music magazine sometime around 1999 and it’s still one of my very favourite tracks. It pretty much sets out their stall from back near their beginning: soft start, gradually building, pulls you in, thrashes you around and then spits you out at the end.
I love Absolution but my favourite would have to be Origin Of Symmetry. There’s a kind of unpolished feel to it which makes the music sound more exciting, plus I have a very soft spot for their cover of Feeling Good. Saw them a couple of times on tour - they are a great stadium band - but not recently, and I dropped out from them after Drones.
Robby Jackson: Other than Butterflies and Hurricanes, mediocre.
Mark Herrington: My introduction to Muse was their raw and thrilling debut Showbiz. By the time they wrote this, their third album, they had distilled that into this intense and grandiose sound. Gripping the imagination with its apocalyptic themes, with a compelling tempo that rises and falls throughout.
Matt Bellamy sings as if it’s the end of the world, throwing everything he’s got into fusing hard rock, dystopia and opera seamlessly. This is probably their high point for me, although they kept the momentum going for Black Holes, before drifting away from their uniqueness to more mundane territory.
Still pretty thrilling live though, when I saw them last year, with their awesome stage show. A 9/10 from me.
Mike Canoe: I have been both too intimidated by Matthew Bellamy's musical ambition and irritated by his singing voice to ever do a deep dive into Muse's discography. Absolution both negates my fear and reinforces it.
Musically, Muse are an adventurous and experimental band that effortlessly straddles prog, pop, pomp and a couple of other genres that don't start with "p." There are whiz-bang effects and samples galore but the band uses them to build an enormous engulfing and engaging sound.
Then there's the voice. Matt Bellamy swings between Thom Yorke's anguished howl and Chris Martin's heart-rending falsetto. The mentions of Radiohead and Coldplay are purposeful because, like Coldplay, it feels like Muse took Radiohead's sound into commercial territory that band refused to. But where Martin comes off as confident and good with the ladies, Bellamy is the precocious little brother who refuses to reel it in.
Ultimately, it turns out that the songs I like best are the two that resonate the most, by far, with other Spotify listeners, Time Is Running Out and Hysteria. Ballad Song for Absolutio" and the appropriately titled rager, Stockholm Syndrome are also good. Given that all four of those songs were released as singles, I may just need to build a singles playlist and get my feet wet a little more before going full album again.
Dale Munday: Muse at their absolute peak. The next album is good but subsequent albums saw them start a steady decline. Morphing into a completely different band. This decline saw them become a massive stadium band, so what do I know?
Brian Carr: In a recent interview, Jerry Cantrell said he gets seasick when he hears the Alice In Chains track Check My Brain. He’s referring to the guitar riff, but upon hearing this week’s album selection, Absolution by Muse, that is absolutely the sensation I had with regards to the vocals.
I’m not one of those rock geezer minds that believe nothing good or worthwhile in rock music came out after the year (fill in the blank). I have heard positive things about Muse here and there but until this selection had not sought them out. While I can hear cool things in the guitar work on Stockholm Syndrome, Hysteria and The Small Print, I just can’t dig those vocals, especially so soon after eating.
Chris Elliott: I've got lots of their albums but haven't really been convinced. It's all "nearly" good - next positive review I'd try again and be half-convinced before forgetting them again.
I can hear Radiohead - I can hear My Bloody Valentine - but somehow this just misses me.
James Last: I'm not nearly as much into Muse as I used to be, they lost me completely around about the time The 2nd Law came out and then I just sort of lost track of them. But having not heard those albums in probably a decade, I recently bought a few of these albums again to revisit them. Absolution being one of them, as it was my favourite Muse album at the time (and remains so today after hearing them all again), and while again it doesn't resonate with as much today as it did when it came out, I found I still enjoy it quite a bit. The production and the vocals date it a bit now but the songs and the playing still hold up pretty well nonetheless. Absolution has, to date, aged the best of their first four albums. I would have given this a 9 or even a 10/10 way back, but today it's still a respectable 8/10.
Final score: 7.33 (59 votes cast, total score 433)
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