Album of the day (#888): Absolution by Muse

[albummaster]

Today's album of the day

Absolution by Muse (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 2003.
Country:
Overall rank: 83
Average rating: 80/100 (from 577 votes).

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Tracks:
1. Intro
2. Apocalypse Please
3. Time Is Running Out
4. Sing For Absolution
5. Stockholm Syndrome
6. Falling Away With You
7. Interlude
8. Hysteria
9. Blackout
10. Butterflies & Hurricanes
11. The Small Print
12. Endlessly
13. Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist
14. Ruled By Secrecy

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

[Guest]

Lolno

[Guest]

Pompous, masturbatory shite.

[Jasonconfused]

No time in my life for this.
_________________

[19loveless91]

Well I'm not the biggest Muse fan either, but I always liked this one

[meccalecca]

[joshtraina]

Top 300 maybe or 400, not 100.

[ColumnatedRuins]

Wow I haven't bothered to give this band any thought for a while (this thread reminded me) but I am surprised by how much I do not like this. Overbearing, irritating, and unlistenable. I liked Muse when I was 15 though, so I suppose that should count for something, but there isn't even a nostalgia factor here. Just a bad record, and a bad band.

[useless]

This is actually really solid stuff, with quite some variety, from straightforward hard rock sound to mellow acoustic to symphonic influences. While Bellamy tries too much for the sake of sounding like the next big arena rock bard, they are actually talented musicians with a lot of skills, especially their bassist. I have somewhat mixed emotions about their lyrics though; sometimes they create admittedly interesting imagery ("eerie whispers trapped beneath my pillow") while during other moments they feel repetitious, pointless and just not very interesting. Listening to this made me totally understand why they are among the "love or hate" bunch of music artists: They sound extremely ambitious, very decisive and not willing to settle for anything less than epic. Personally I am somewhere in the middle, I like them while far from being a fan, however this kind of attitude that works on this very good, if flawed album, somehow feels annoying on The Resistance (decent album btw, just not very good), their other studio work I've heard in full. The best track by far for me is Stockholm Syndrome, close calls would possibly be Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist and Hysteria, however there are some dull moments throughout which I cannot quite remember right now. Anyway, I don't think it deserves such a high placement in the overall BEA chart, but it's pretty strong and definitely very enjoyable.

[Dingerbell]

Requires watching live videos to make any sense, otherwise it seems out of place. Especially Stockholm Syndrome, with it's performance at Glastonbury 2004 being one of the most famous.

My favourites on the album are Butterflies and Hurricanes, The Small Print and Stockholm Syndrome and, to be honest, the rest are hit and miss. Sometimes I enjoy this album, sometimes it frustrates me and makes me question it's high rating on my chart. I reckon it'll be lowered at some stage, but probably not right now. The problem with this album, for me, is how far away it is from Origin of Symmetry, which it is miles away from in quality, songs, diversity and pacing. I guess for a casual listener, it'll be the most preferred album, with it's songs being simple to understand and generally catchy, and that hard rock sound of the instruments.

The reason why people think it's pompous and over the top is, generally, the vocals- with their tone and lyrics being cheesy and really exaggerated. I can understand this completely- I mean I can't stand some artists because of the vocals- but anyone commenting on pompousness in this album, in terms of instrumentation, is a bit out of place. Definitely on the 2nd Law, the Resistance and even Black Holes and Revelations, but suggesting it on here means you haven't really got past Sing For Absolution.

To conclude, I guess I have mixed feeling about Muse and this album. They're my favourite band, regardless, because I love many of their songs, but the direction they are taking is one that puts me off. This album, as well, sometimes puts me off, and sometimes I just adore it. Meh.