We live in interesting times. We talk daily to complete strangers in online chat forums. We have access to information the moment it’s occurring. Computers, mobile phones, pagers, wireless internet. We’re on information overload.
Meanwhile, global warming is on the rise, acts of terrorism an everyday concern, and the most powerful nation in the world is being governed by a simian puppet. Yep, these are interesting times all right.
So why is it that 90 per cent of the rock fraternity are hopelessly lost in nostalgia, decked out in their fathers’ flannel shirts pretending it’s still the ‘60s or ‘70s?
Thank god for Muse, then. Not content to glorify the past, these 21st century rockers have one eye on the present and the other on the future. Black Holes and Revelations, their fourth album, promises to be a true reflection of this inmate run asylum we call Planet Earth.
They say:
The Observer: “The musical backdrops are ambitious, exhilarating, sometimes ineffably beautiful."
DIY: “The biggest thing Muse have done to date, they’re hiding from nobody.”
The Times: “Lyrically unhinged, technically dazzling … Muse remain a glorious anomaly in modern British rock.”
We say:
They’ve done it again. Black Holes and Revelations is an extraordinary exercise in indulgent yet emotive post millennium rock ‘n’ roll, capturing the existential despair and political turmoil of the times with frightening precision.
However, that’s not to say the album wallows in negativity; on the contrary, this is a cathartic one way trip to hell, combining soaring riffs, electro showmanship and falsetto theatrics with infectious acid grooves.
‘Take a Bow’ sets the mood, with Bellamy’s operatic vocals etching vapour trails across music of dark arcade game like opulence. “Corrupt/You’re corrupt/Bring corruption to all that you touch,” he laments in a full on assault on a certain leader of the free world, before adding, “You must pay for your crimes against the earth” amid Grim Reaper style guitar, slinging a scythe in its target’s general direction.
Overturning an oppressor is a recurring theme throughout the album. “Let’s use this chance to turn things around,” Bellamy implores over a marching band drumbeat and mock guitar patriotism on ‘Invincible’, while the speed metal flirtation of ‘Assassin’ calls for global rebellion (“The time has come for you/To shoot your leaders down/Join forces underground”).
On a more personal note, the staccato guitar driven fuzz of ‘Exo-politics’ deals with Bellamy’s fascination with alien conspiracy theories, and the sublime ‘Starlight’ seems to be about being psychically separated from loved ones during life on the road, or alternatively it could be about a soldier stationed in a foreign land. The latter song in particular is a highlight.
But Muse saved the best for last: the prog rock spaghetti space western ‘Knights of Cydonia’ which sounds like the sequel to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, bristling with spooky Tardis like synths, artificial trumpet and tobacco spitting riffs.
“No one’s going to take me alive,” Bellamy sings defiantly in the face of the impending apocalypse. “Time has come to make things right.” The revolution starts here.
Like this? Try these:
Depeche Mode – Violator
U2 – Zooropa
Queen – The Platinum Collection – Greatest Hits I, II & III
RELEASED
30th June
LABEL
Warner
POSTED...
Thu 29 Jun 2006 at 4:47pm
