Muse: Black Holes and Revelations  Score 6.27

File Under: Rush-inspired lyric content meets the return of Queen.

Ya know how there are movies you need to see in the theater unless you have a 65 inch HD TV with surround sound?  Well…there are albums like that, too.  BLACK HOLES AND REVELATIONS by Muse is one of those.  I bought the CD from Amazon after finally giving in to the onslaught of great tracks from it played feverishly on my favorite alternative radio station.  First there was the downright quirky Queen-inspired anthem Knights of Cydonia.  Then, I heard Starlight and the love affair began.  The climactic moment came the first time I heard Invincible.  Three songs from the same album.  Each one better than the one before.  I was in love.  Or lust.  Upon first playing in my car, I thought maybe I had been duped by another pretty boy with only three good things about him.  But, I soldiered on, listening on long drives and trying to do more than just jump around between my three favorites.  It wasn’t love until I plugged the CD into my 700 watt jammer of a system.  Turns out that the sheer wall of sound that is Muse could not be handled by my standard-issue Honda sound system.  It’s sorta like the difference between watching Return of the King in the theater versus watching it on your 19-inch TV.  I feel like I just finished a workout by the time this one ends, and I was sitting on my arse the whole time!  If you like dramatic-sounding music that hearkens to the heyday of Queen and Freddie Mercury, get this album.

Song By Song:
1. TAKE A BOW begins with a nice little synthesizer run that at first sounds almost happy – with an undertone of impending doom.  The bass launches the vocals and confirms the dooming – damning – tone of the song.  Verse one ends with the none-too-subtle “you will burn in hell for your sins.”  Then the synthesizers kick it up a whole notch and by the time the chorus ends with “take a bow,” it’s ON!  Now, everyone is involved in a cacophony of sound punctuated by the pointed judge-from-the-bench lyrics, wrapping up with a completely chaotic “burn in hell for your sins.”  This song is about Geroge W. Bush – and these guys don’t like him very much.  As he is presumable burning in hell for his sins, the guitar goes to full reverb and a sonic blast that never fully fades out…

2. …instead kicking right into the driving beat that begins what is possibly the most notable song on the album, STARLIGHT.  Right away, I found myself banging the catchy Thump. Thump-Thump. Thump. Thump-Thump-Thump on my steering wheel.  Make no mistake, this is a pop song designed to feature the vocals.  And it is well worth it.  The ship has taken him far away and he is chasing a starlight just to get back to the one he wants to simply hold in his arms.  You get the idea.  This song has one of the best pick up lines ever: “let’s conspire to ignite all the souls that would die just to feel alive.”  Use that one and you’re in, baby! 

3. SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE begins badly and never really recovers.  It was just one song ago that we were a little too immersed in anger.  But, because that was anger at George W, I could handle it.  Now he is just mad because someone lied to him.  The anger here is a little too indulgent – although calling the object of your hatred a supermassive black hole surely gets you points with the Trekkie crowd.

4. MAP OF THE PROBLEMATIQUE.  This song starts with what sounds like a twitchy finger on a feedback-laden guitar, kicks in with a catchy keyboard riff and then the thumpa-thump of some drums, all held tightly together as if it could be a dance track.  Soon the ghost of a New Order guitar riff drives a melody that foreshadows the coming vocals. As the song shifts into the first verse, the band settles into a comfortable groove to back the haunting vocalist.  He ends the first verse with a beautiful run along the words “can’t get it right.”  The chorus consists of the simple once-repeated line “loneliness be over.”  But, don’t think this song is about love-lost or love-never-gained.  As the singer sails into another verse (again punctuated by the melodic “can’t get it right,”) we start to understand the problem – or problematique: this song is about war – a war no one understands.  “No one thinks they are to blame.  Can’t we see when we bleed, we bleed the same.”  By now, the tight band is backing the chorus (“loneliness be over”) with what sounds like a renewed energy and a couple new sounds.  This song rocks!  Get the album and you get bragging rights for discovering it.

5. One of the things we loved about Queen was their ability to turn the reverb off and sing in some pretty impressive harmony, even if Freddie was singing all the parts. Well, SOLDIER’S POEM appears to be Muse’s attempt to prove they can do just the same.  That’s all I have to say about that song.

6. I am a sucker for songs that start calmly and crescendo slowly to a feverish climax.  Gosh, that sounds like sex!  Anyway, the first time I heard INVINCIBLE I knew I had to own this album.  The song inspires a video in my head based on the current struggle in my state to institute domestic partnerships and discrimination protections for sexual minorities.  In fact, it is this simple concept that inspires me to declare this a gay-friendly release.  “Follow through. Make your dreams come true.  Don’t give up the fight… There’s no one like you in the universe…. You should make a stand.  Stand up for what you believe.”  As the instruments add themselves in and the orchestration swells, he says “During the struggle they will pull us down, but please, please let’s use this chance to turn things around.  And tonight we can truly say we’re invincible.”  Then it rolls into a truly fantastic guitar solo where I see the images of us struggling in speeches and rallies to “turn things around.”  We get one more spirited admonition to be invincible and the song ends in a flurry of sound and a bang.  I swear, I can hear my own heart beating rapidly in the following silence.

7. ASSASSIN is Muse’s bid to mimic Metallica and is totally unnecessary. 

8. One of the signature Muse sounds is the grinding music with a beat about double that of the vocals, which soar above the chaotic beat.  It only works if the singer eventually matches the beat, usually at the chorus.  This is the map of the song EXO POLITICS.  It’s another song about being let down by our leaders, this time somehow relating to mysterious satellites in the sky.  Whatever.  The saving grace of this song is the way it transitions from the grindy-whiny vocal of the verse to the promise of the chorus.  It’s a head knocker.

9. Holy crap!  Acoustic guitar!  CITY OF DELUSION begins with a catchy little acoustic riff that blends nicely into the ratchety Muse-sound we come to expect.  Once again, we experience the soary-whiny vocal sailing above the grind and chaotic beat of the instrumentalists.  But what Muse accomplishes here they couldn’t in the previous song is to bring it together into a masterful chorus.  Oh, and the one thing that absolutely makes this song work is the strings section bringing a movie-soundtrack quality to the middle section. I smile furtively when the strings come in and then my mouth drops into a “oh no you didn’t” shock as the horn solo completely sells the whole song to me.

10. HOODOO begins with a promising guitar sound we have not yet heard from Muse.  The first verse reminds me of a nightclub in some war-torn country and ends with a surprising piano riff that swells into a plaintive wail about dying or something.  At least the strings return.  The song wraps itself up in a dying gasp of sad vocals.  It seems that this song is nothing more than a set-up for the climactic album ender…

11. …the bass notes that begin the album version of KNIGHTS OF CYDONIA shook the dishes in my kitchen.  You don’t hear those on the radio version.  They all lead into what can only be called a driven song, complete with strings and horns. What can I say about Knights of Cydonia?  It has to be one of the most original rock and roll songs since the demise of Freddie Mercury.  It’s got synthesizer riffs to die for, unison-singing as good as anything Queen ever did and movements.  Yep, I said it.  Movements.  I am willing to bet that there is a 20 minute version of this song soon to be released that tells the whole story and reminds all of us old enough to remember of the Yes two-songs-on-this-album symphonies.  There is a point in this song where we go from the ultra-original unison singing into the driving beat that brings us home to the end of the song like a racehorse on the final stretch.  I mean, really.  By the time this song and the CD is over, I feel exhausted.  But…it’s a happy exhaustion.

RATINGS:
Gay Factor: Well, they get points for not liking their leaders.  Most of us gays don’t like George W. Bush very much and I believe Muse suggests that he “burn in hell for his sins.”  At least one of them looks kinda gay.  But the true gay points for this album are wrapped up in the incomparable song “Invincible.”  I am not sure I have heard anything that so eloquently represents any struggle.  I am using it as inspiration for our current struggle to gain the rights of ordinary citizens.

Song Ratings:
9: Map Of The Problematique.  My only complaint is that I wish it were longer.
6: Take A Bow.  Love the anger, just don’t want to hear it all the time.
8: Starlight.  The only way I could like it more was if I discovered it myself instead of hearing it three times a day on the radio.
2: Supermassive Black Hole.  Kinda makes me feel icky.
10: Invincible.  Rarely does a song truly inspire me.  This one fires me up.
2: Assassin.  Unmelodic, icky.
5: Exo Politics.  Promising, but not quite good.
3: Soldier’s Poem.  Only good if you like some swelling harmonies.
9: City of Delusion.  Variety up the yingyang, strings and horns.  Holy crap!
4: Unlucky enough to be between two of the better songs on the album, we at least get to catch our breath and not be too annoyed in the process.
9: Knights of Cydonia.  There can be only one best track on the CD, but this one is close. 
Average: 6.27

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