Muse - Absolution
Pick up Absolution, but you're better off hearing these songs in your own order, not straight through.
Review by Kiwi

Absolution is the third album produced by British megaband Muse. Most people who've heard Muse on the radio, or at least listened to an alt rock station, have probably heard their single "Time Is Running Out," which comes off of this album. If not, then it's off of their newest album, Black Holes and Revelations, which has three singles out in the US at the time of this writing. If you have heard Time is Running Out, you may expect something like that to be throughout the album. This is far from the case. Most of the songs are well done, but for people playing the album straight through (as it should be played, hinted at with an introduction and an interlude halfway through the album), it can get a little jerky at times as the album constantly shifts between hard-hitting and softer pieces.

Starting off the album is the aptly named Intro, a 22-second recording of marching and a man shouting orders. This song then makes a smooth transition to the first actual song, Apocalypse Please, which sounds like a familiar Muse song: a great combination of guitar, drums, and vocals. There's also a piano thrown in at times, adding to the classical yet modern feel of the song. After that is the aforementioned single, Time is Running Out, which is another great sounding song, and has a harder, faster sound to it compared to Apocalypse Please. Next up is Sing For Absolution, one of the numerous slower songs on the album, and a song that better reflects the whole feel of the album compared to the first two songs. Eerie lyrics, a steady drum beat, the escalating intensity of the chorus, and the guitar solo in the second half make this the best song on the album, in my opinion. If you want a song that projects the mood of the entire album, this is a good one to pick. It is, after all, also the name of the album. That's gotta mean something.

Stockholm Syndrome goes back to the harder feel of the first two songs, kicking it up another notch from the intensity left in Time Is Running Out. If you've heard Assassin from Black Holes, it's like that. If you haven't, then listen to both songs. In any case, if you're a person who likes your guitar with two lumps of sugar for that extra kick, this is a song for you. Following that song, Falling Away With You starts out slow, only hitting hard for the chorus of the song. The alternation is smooth and works well, and all in all it's beautifully done. The song also segways into the Interlude of the album, which carries over a couple of the sounds at the end and uses the guitar to play what I believe sounds like the song from Platoon. It has a slight familiarity to it, and sounds depressing and tragic in its own little way.

Once again switching from soft to hard, Hysteria is intense and loud. It's a good song, but it doesn't really bring anything new. I can't describe it, but it feels like when I hear it that I've heard it before by a different band. It's bland. It's good, but it's bland and been done before. Blackout - once again - goes back to a softer, slower beat. Violin (I think it's violin, anyway) is thrown in, adding the same effect that piano did for Apocalypse Please. It is, like most of the slower songs on the album, beautifully done, and Muse probably doesn't get as much credit as they should for making songs that sound like these do. Butterflies and Hurricanes, like Falling Away With You, goes back and forth between hard and soft: it starts out slow, but slowly increases the beat to the point where they once again go over to the hard side, then back to soft for the piano solo, and then finishes off hard. The tone and lyrics of the vocals on this song specifically remind me of Take A Bow from Black Holes.

The Small Print is odd. To me, it doesn't sound like Muse. Compared to the rest of this album, it sounds like they took a punk song and tried to Museify it. It's good, but it's like Hysteria in that it's a generic sound. The vocals, the guitar... it just doesn't seem to fit. Endlessly goes back to the slow approach. It's moderately slow, but not bad. It could've been worse. Thoughts of a Dying Atheist always gives me a grin, partially because it sounds like a very upbeat song, and yet it's a song about the end of the world and whatnot. It's odd, but I like it, mainly because of the beat. The album closes off with a slow song: Ruled By Secrecy, which starts off with a piano and vocals, then slowly adds in a drum beat and adds more punch about halfway through with a session of piano pounding. The vocals were, for me, nearly incomprehensible as Bellamy falls into high-pitched whining for just about all of the song. I think it's great that he can get his range that high, but, really, he's not singing for dogs.

All in all, Absolution is a good album. Despite my complaints against it, it is. Almost all of the songs work well, and they sound great, hard or slow. Despite this, the album is a little too jerky for my tastes; I don't mind a few hard songs and a few slow songs, but when the entire album seems to be an escalating competition between hard and soft songs, it starts feeling like beyond the idea of a concept album focused on the end of the world, the band didn't have much direction with the album. Personally, I believe that the songs could have been arranged in a better way, and maybe the band did too: Black Holes, for example, goes in a generally straight line from soft to hard rock, and the intensity slightly increases with each song up to the end. A lot of the songs are good on their own, and if you like something you've heard of Muse, this is a good album to experience their vast range in playing songs, but if you play this straight through, you're bound to feel a little bit confused about it all once you reach the end. Really, instead of one story, it's a bunch of short stories that have been compiled together with different genres and viewpoints in mind. Pick up Absolution, but you're better off hearing these songs in your own order, not straight through.

Top Songs:
1. Sing For Absolution
2. Time Is Running Out
3. Thoughts of a Dying Atheist


Final Score: 8.4/10