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Music CD - Muse: Black Holes and Revelations
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Music CD: Black Holes and Revelations
Artist: Muse
List Price: $15.98
Our Price: $9.91
Your Save: $ 6.07 ( 38% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Warner Bros / Wea
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. Take A Bow
2. Starlight
3. Supermassive Black Hole
4. Map Of The Problematique
5. Soldier's Poem
6. Invincible
7. Assassin
8. Exo-Politics
9. City Of Delusion
10. Hoodoo
11. Knights Of Cydonia
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0093624428428
Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Manufacturer: Warner Bros / Wea
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Warner Bros / Wea
Release Date: 2006-07-11
Studio: Warner Bros / Wea
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Diversity
Comment: I like this CD. It has a lot of Queen influence in the vocal and music department. It also has a very Art Rock approach in the music. The musicianship is amazing and always interesting. This Cd was recommended in a Prog Magazine as an album of rock with prog embellishments. I would have to agree. I'm not sure I hear the Rush influence as others have mentioned. I hear more Queen and U2. I think they should move away from the U2 and stick with the Queen influence. Whatever the case is, the CD is very enjoyable like a real good Adrian Belew CD.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a Revelation!
Comment: In "Butterflies and Hurricanes," on the Absolution album, Matt Bellamy sings, "Best... you've got to be the best... you've got to change the world and you use this chance to be heard." He certainly heeds his own advice, as is evidenced in the politically charged lyrics of "Take a Bow," opening song on the new Black Holes and Revelations album. He tells our current leaders that they will "burn in hell for their sins." The question is whether he is speaking to Bush or Blair. Probably both. As harsh as this message might sound, it pales in comparison to the call to arms in "Assassin," where "the time has come for you to shoot your leaders down." Ouch. At any rate, Muse has become a worldwide phenomenon, selling out three consecutive nights of shows at Wembley Stadium, and they are utilizing their popularity to inspire their fans to do something.
"Supermassive Black Hole," has been both praised and criticized. Its inspiring of opposite reactions is likely due to the atypical sound. Synthesizers boom in a low register while Bellamy's voice floats above in falsetto. The cliché is tongue in cheek, "I thought I was a fool for noone, but ooh baby, I'm a fool for you." I dare you not to groove along with this song. Opposites are a strong theme in "Starlight" as well. Wolstenholme `s base line is just delicious, and as in "Supermassive," its depth is set off by the higher keys of Matt's voice and piano. "I just wanted to hold you in my arms" shows a yearning for closeness, but there is a great sense of desolation: "this ship is taking me far away, far away from the memories of the people who care if I live or die." The music and the lyrics are so bittersweet, as in "Map of the Problematique," which opens with "fear and panic in the air." While the apocalypse is present throughout the album, it is most pronounced here. These lyrics echo those in great apocalyptic literature, where the final survivors struggle with their finality in isolation.
The voice of the hero is never so pure as in "Soldier's Poem." It sounds like an Elvis Presley ballad, but beneath the sweet harmonies lies an acerbic depiction of someone serving their country yet challenging those defended to question the rationality of war and the actuality that there is no justice. It is so angry, yet wrapped in pretty paper, that it makes you giggle at the absurdity of it all. Don't doubt that this is the intent.
"Knights of Cydonia" runs on the pace of a horse's gallop, calling attention to the four horsemen in the cover art. It is such a phenomenal way to end the album (as well as live concerts), with octave-spanning accapellas and heavily rocking guitar riffs. It also ends the apocalyptic theme with a statement of fortitude, not at all going quietly into the great night.
The genius of Muse is head spinning, especially for a three piece band. If Matt Bellamy were only the lyricist he is, the vocalist, guitarist, or keyboardist, he would be a major talent, but the quadruple threat amplifies his genius to an unheard of level. Was this boy genetically engineered (as the puppies in "Plug in Baby" on Origin of Symmetry), bred and raised by a Mensa society, or spat here by God himself as a gift to music lovers? He is his own four horsemen, isn't he? If he is heralding the end of the world, then, yeah, that sucks, but at least now I have that one album I'd like to take with me.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable
Comment: To say that this album is diverse would be a bit of an understatement. From the opening track "Take a Bow" to "Knights of Cydonia" at its end (incidentally, this was the song that prompted me to buy the album), Black Holes and Revelations takes you on a nearly-fifty-minute musical roller coaster ride, with each track bringing a different, new sound, and yet being done in such a way that it all fits nicely together. All in all I felt that it was extremely well done, and a very pleasant album to listen to. Not having heard much of their previous work, this album has triggered my interest and I'm now intending on exploring what their past albums have to offer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: SUPERMASSIVE ALBUM !!
Comment: This album shows a very unique and new side of the always brillant MUSE. Supermassive has an overwhelming vibe along with Knights. One of the best cd's and worth the money!! Each song is different and the album never gets old. Highly reccomended!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Muse are just Better
Comment: Better than me, better than you. They are just an Uber-talented band with savvy to boot.
I was fortunate enough to see Muse perform on Friday evening (21 March) and was completely blown away! In fact the very next day I went off to the nearest CD store and purchased this and Absolution as a result. To say the performance was mind-blowing is an understatement. But let me not digress too far.
The songs on the album are completely eclectic, from synth-pop to surf-like guitar tones (the first part of Knights of Cydonia reminds of a futuristic version of the Shadows) but at the same time the album never becomes too daunting to listen to. Every second of listening to the album I just keep thinking "What are they going to do next?"
As for fave tracks Knights of Cydonia is my favourite currently (this may of course change as I listen more and more to the album) but I also totally love Supermassive Black Hole and Starlight. (I am going to assume that these songs will likely be most peoples' favourites because they really stand out from the first time you listen to them!) I also think that Take a Bow is very cool, and is the most fitting album opener.
In short it seems as though Muse have managed to progress from where Radiohead started in alternative music and have come up with an incredibly intelligent, musical, quirky [insert as many adjectives as you like] offering that is destined to be a classic. All this and they have managed to avoid the categorisation as a "prog" band!
Go and buy this CD now, and fill the Supermassive Black Hole in your CD collection!
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Editorial Reviews:
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Sounding like the confident, ambitious superstars they already are in their native UK, Muse follows up their breakthrough Absolution with an album that tempers the trio's unabashed grandiosity and apocalyptic obsessions with a smart pop groove. The minimalist angst of the opening "Take A Bow" may bridge the goth-pop conceits of the collection's successful predecessor, but those expectations are quickly kicked aside by "Starlight"'s synth-pop bliss, the falsettoed, space-disco thump of "Supermassive Black Hole" and the chilly, New Wave redux sheen of "Map of the Problematic"; so much for being held hostage to those early Radiohead comparisons. Indeed, on the lilting "Soldier's Poem" vocalist Matthew Bellamy cannily channels Freddie Mercury while "Assassin" pulses with the familiar metallic nerve and lyrical dread of Muse past. But by the time "Knights of Cydonia" erupts in a wrenching, melodramatic climax that somehow fuses ELP, Davie Allan, Procul Harum and Chris Isaak with enough giddy abandon to suspend disbelief, Muse have long since proved their case as genre-be-damned rock world-beaters. --Jerry McCulley
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