For a couple years, I had heard whispers about Muse, that they were the new Radiohead and such. Now that I’ve gotten the chance to actually listen to their music, I can say that it’s completely not true. To suggest that Muse is just Radiohead-lite cheapens Radiohead and Muse both. It cheapens Radiohead because nobody sounds like them. They’re one of the only entities in music that’s totally unique. It cheapens Muse because they aren’t just a cheap knock-off of another band, though they owe debts to Duran Duran and Depeche Mode. Matthew Bellamy sounds eerily like Thom Yorke in his Pablo Honey/The Bends days, but that’s really where the similarities end. They’re lyrics make way too much sense to bear any comparison, and their music is pretty poppy and catchy. Radiohead is neither, “Creep” excepted. If you’re looking for a Radiohead clone, don’t look here. In fact, don’t look anywhere, because it’s a waste of time.Muse’s fourth album, Black Holes & Revelations, finds them just as weird, but a little more tuneful, daring, and optimistic. Techno blurs with rock and roll to create a sound that is very reminiscent of 80’s synth pop and goth rock. It’s clear that Muse’s goth beginnings have not completely left them, but they also take elements of Queen and the like for a rather splendid combination.
The strongest thing I can say about Black Holes & Revelations is that it gets a little more interesting on each listen. Bellamy’s fascination with the planet Mars is not overbearing, and the album cover is just cryptic enough that it makes you stare at it intently instead of turn away in disgust. I must say, though, that I’ve never heard as much vitriol and bile spewed at George W. Bush or Republicans in general as Muse does here, not even by Rage Against the Machine. It could be they’re pissed off at Tony Blair, too. Naturally, one can understand their frustration at the leader of a superpower that’s mucking everything up, but from listening to the words of “Take a Bow" and "Exo-Politics,” you would think that Bush murdered Bellamy’s puppy and then had sex with his mother. “You will burn in hell for your sins” doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for forgiveness. “Starlight” provides the most pop moment on the album, and is also the closest thing Muse has done to a happy song. The song is a perfect lead-off single, as it has a relentless beat and a great melody. “Supermassive Black Hole,” clunky title aside, is similarly relentless, and has a groove to it that swims with sweet nastiness. Bellamy sings in a sexy falsetto, and the outer space imagery provides an interesting point of view to the slightly bawdy lyrical content. “Map of the Problematique,” the album’s best song, is lifted almost directly from the Depeche Mode playbook, bordering on plagiarism. But I guess if Weird Al can do it, there’s really no problem with it.
“Soldier’s Poem” has echoes of Queen in it (a band I hate), “Invincible” is a bit too rosy and manufactured for me, and “Hoodoo” can’t make up its mind about what kind of song it is. However, “Knights of Cydonia” more than makes up for all of those. It’s a driving, intense and rocking song that closes the album in a perfectly splendid way. But to really appreciate the awesomeness of this song, you need to see its video. It’s a combination sci-fi adventure/spaghetti western, and has all the requisite elements that would make George Lucas and Sergio Leone proud.
Muse has made a very intriguing album here. They’re not always good, but they at least hold your interest throughout the whole thing. They may be British and ironic, but they refuse to be your new Radiohead.
Map of the Problematique
Knights of Cydonia
Starlight
Supermassive Black Hole
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