Music: Black Holes & Revelations


Muse - Black Holes & Revelations

Ah! -- it's more Muse. I got from this album exactly what I expected to get from it: surges of passion, mindfucking guitar trance, dirty and sexy beats and bass, an epic scale. I expected the album to have a cohesive sound that was different from all Muse before, but still recognisably Muse -- and it did, the new spin this time being that it sounds like they've been listening to hardcore trance.

And, of course, being everything that I expected makes it slightly disappointing. I would love Muse to totally shock me, rather than just satisfying me. I would like them to play football with my head. They may well do so yet, but in the meantime they're still sticking somewhat to a formula, albeit a great one.

It's not quite as formulaic as, say, Absolution. There are more different types of song, for a start, rather than that standard Muse trick of building up from breathy obscure vocals over dreamy electronics to massive chugging anhtemic guitar. On the other side of the balance, the lyrics have descended to the truly daft -- they read like a selection of pseudo-apocalyptic sentiments and pseudo-empwering political life messages have ben pulled at random from a hat.

It's great music, it really is. But I'm still left wanting more.

Here's a totally unrepresentative but truly brilliant sample:

Soldier's Poem