Muse - Black Holes & Revelations
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Free Music Notes for Black Holes & Revelations
Free Music Review: The best album of 2006
Hit: 5 Stars
The first time that I heard supermassive black holes I was extremely skeptical of the new album, but after hearing it I'm reminded why i should have never doubted muse. I'm a huge Muse fan, and in my mind Absolution is the best album ever made with Oos not far behind. After purchasing the cd ive found that its right on par with Oos and Absolution. Heres the track by track breakdown...
1.Take a Bow 8/10
Its a good opener with a synth style piano with builds into a bombastic finish. Typical Muse...
2.Starlight 10/10
This is an amazing song with a great chorus. This is the obvious choice for their single.
3.Supermassive Black Holes 6/10
Definitely my least favorite song on the album. Don't judge the album by this song because it is the only song of its style on the record. It kind of sounds like a electronic type prince song.
4.Map of the Problematique 10/10
Great song with a driving piano melody and pounding drums. This is my favorite song on the album.
5.Soldiers Poem 7/10
This song is the second weakest behind supermassive. It is sort of an interlude which makes a nice transition to a slower song in invicible.
6.Invicible 10/10
This song has a very catchy guitar riff and wonderful lyrics. The military sounding drums also add a nice touch.
7.Assasins 8/10
Definitely the hardest song on the album. This song is the Stockholm Syndrome of Absolution.
8.Exo-Politics 8/10
This song is a very politically driven song(hints the name), and it is actually a remake of burning bandits which was just a b-side from the showbiz/oos era.
9.City of Delusion 10/10
This song has a spanish feel to it which they pull off really well. Horns are also blended into this song very well. Probably the most unique song on this album, which really demonstrates what talented musicians muse are.
10.Hoodoo 9/10
This song also has a spaghetti western feel to it. I didnt like this song the first time I heard it, but it has really grown on me. Matt does and amazing job on the piano in this one.
11.Knights of Cydonia 10/10
KoC is the perfect ending for this album. It summarizes everything this album is about much like Ruled by Secrecy did in Absolution.
All in all this album is a great one that shows how Muse have evolved as musicians. They never cease to amaze me and this is just another masterpiece to add to their collection.
Free Music Review: Truly Revelatory
Hit: 5 Stars
He might have created the cover art for bands as diverse as AC/DC, Audioslave and The Cranberries, but English artist Storm Thorgerson's sleeve designs for Pink Floyd remain the best coupling of epic graphic creations with similarly grandiose musical flights of fancy. That is, until now.
After Thorgerson's success with previous Muse album sleeve Absolution (featuring perplexed earthbound individuals unnerved by ethereal shadows), the Devon trio have again called on Thorgerson to conjure up a sleeve for Black Holes And Revelations as bold in vision as the music within. Based upon Biblical and conspiratorial theories, the subsequent depiction of powerbrokers engineering global struggles from the deserts of Mars is colourful, detailed and over the top. Perfect, therefore, as the visually accompaniment to an album more mammoth than Mr Snuffleupagus.
On Black Holes And Revelations, Muse have at last found the musical energy to satisfy their extravagant aspirations for an entire album. While Absolution lagged on the home straight, this time Muse gallop home for a victory riding the horses of the apocalypse.
Opener Take A Bow finds Muse maestro Matt Bellamy hunched over his keyboard like a demented Phantom Of The Opera who knows Armageddon is nigh and is loving every minute, howling about the sinners who'll soon be burning in Hell and snarling at the corruption of the world. From this bombastic outset, it only gets bigger and better.
Supermassive Black Hole is a funky first single deserving of its own robotic electropopping dance, Starlight is an emotive counterpoint as good as anything Muse have ever done and Map Of The Problematique offers a Depeche Mode introduction, thumping drums and guitar sequences so sharp they'll cut you in two.
Elsewhere it's kitchen sink time, as every instrument, production technique and music style are piled skywards in a successful effort to topple everything they've done before. Not only are Muse cocky enough to steal the title of one of Coldplay's finest songs, they've also provided their Politik with an injection of Middle Eastern strings, a Mexican fiesta of horns and a burbling bassline that sounds like it's been delivered straight from Atlantis.
Ambitiously armed with the spirit of soundtrack expert John Williams and Queen's charging taste for excessive production, Muse have created a mighty album based around devolutionary squalor and the imminent fall of mankind.
All hail the new Pink Floyd.
Free Music Review: Blew Away My Expections..
Hit: 5 Stars
Muse first caught my attention with Absolution which I loved. Then I went backwards in the Muse discography and started listening to Origin of Symmetry, which is a genius album in its own right. Both of those albums are fantastic and worth having in your collection. With that said, I was interested to hear the new Muse album. How would Black Holes and Revelations compare with the previous two albums?
Quite well, and in fact it easily surpasses Absolution and is on par with Origin of Symmetry. On first listen, there were a number of songs I liked. But this is one of those albums that only gets better the more you listen, and in my opinion that is a sign of a high quality album. It has lasting value and you won't quickly get burned out on it.
Black Holes and Revelations is a beautiful album, it really is. Muse has to be one of the mose unique and creative bands to come out in years. People have compared Muse to bands like Radiohead and Queen, and while shades of both bands are found in Muse's music, Muse have created a sound that is all their own while at the same time paying tribute to some of their musical influences.
The album starts off with a bang on the track, Take A Bow. A powerful song directed towards some of the political leaders in the world, you hear Bellamy's enchanting voice saying, "You Will Burn, You Will Burn..." Awesome song. The second track, Starlight is also a fantastic song, and more upbeat than Take A Bow. Map of the Problematiqu is one of my favorite tracks, a fast paced spacey song with some clever guitar work on it. Assasain is track 7, and its another one of my favorite tracks, I love the introduction, its a hard song, yet melodic at the same time. Knights of Cydonia is a excellent way to end the album. Its the most electronic song found here, and its very epic and broad in its scope. It sounds like vintage Queen at some parts. But I don't find that to be a bad thing, as its sounds awesome. One of the great things about this album, is that despite hearing some crazy sounds and electronica, Bellamy's voice fits in and flows perfectly with the music, adding a great cohesive feel to the album.
Conclusion, Black Holes and Revelations is a broad and epic album. If your a Muse fan, don't hesitate to buy this album, its among some of the best work they have ever done, and its one of the best albums of 2006.
Free Music Review: Far Away... this ship is taking me far away...
Hit: 5 Stars
This is definitely the second best album of 2006, with Number One being "A MAtter of Life and Death" by my favorite band, Iron Maiden! Muse are a great trio of great musicians, and this album truly showcases their talent well. Right from the sweeping intro of "Take a Bow", the album just explodes into pure rock, pure and simple. A mix of prog, synth rock, pop, metal, with a bit of spaghetti western, this album is one of my favorite albums of all time.
TAKE A BOW: 10/10: An awesome song, begins quiet, then gets louder and louder, then BOOM! It explodes! It's a great Pink Floyd-ish way to open an album.
STARLIGHT: 8/10: A beautiful song, Bellamy really shines on this song!
SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE: 9/10: A bit of a naughty song lyric-wise, but a fun and catchy one too! Some good and subtle sexual puns in there (Glaciers Melting in the Dead Of Night, etc.)
MAP OF THE PROBLEMATIQUE: 7/10: Didn't care for it at first, but now I like it a lot. Great use of it in the Children of Men trailer.
SOLDIER'S POEM: 6/10: Meh, feels really filler.
INVINCIBLE: 8/10: After a sort of bleh intro, it grows into a beautiful rocker with a real marching feel.
ASSASSIN: 10+/10: HOLY FREEKING CRAP!!!!!! This song is so freekin' badass! After a creepy intro, the song explodes into a heavy, sledgehammer-assault track that is REALLY hard hitting. Best Muse song period! Makes you feel like you're going into battle.
EXO-POLITICS: 5/10: Meh, again, kind of filler. Not bad tough.
CITY OF DELUSION: 8/10: A real Spanish flavored track that really leaves you wanting more! Love it.
HOODOO: 10/10: Wow, just freekin' wow. Beautiful song. Very slow, but it has an underlying tragic feel. May be the second best track on the CD!
KNIGHTS OF CYDONIA: 10/10: A real Iron Maidenesque song with a galloping beat that is a hell of a way to go out.
In short, if you wanna get into Muse, buy this album. It's a great prog album, and because of this album I bought all their other albums. A must own!
Free Music Review: Black Holes and Revelations is a revelation
Hit: 5 Stars
I'd first like to say that like Kathleen below, I actually heard this band for the first time in the movie "Twilight" and it sparked my interest. I actually gave up buying CD's of bands back in the early 90's and almost exclusively listen to musical scores from movies and live theater. I don't listen to the radio (except at work where it is inoffensive pop songs) so I'd never heard of this band. Because I'm so focused on scores, when I see a movie I tend to really listen to how the music is incorporated throughout. When "Supermassive Black Hole" showed up in the baseball scene of "Twilight" I was like..."Wow, what is that song?" I started checking around and found out it was Muse. I downloaded the MP3 and loved it so much I thought I'd give the whole album a try.
What a revelation! Their sound is just incredible. I can't compare to other bands (like so many others in these reviews), so all I can say is that a group HAS to be great to make me buy their CD when I listen almost exclusively to intrumentals. I do find that I tend to skip 2 tracks whenever I listen to this CD - "Take a Bow" and "Assassins." And, unlike many other reviewers, I can take or leave "Knights of Cydonia," although I've started listening to that song a little more often than I used to. But Matt Bellamy's voice, the melodies and the lyrics are just incredible to me. I've played this album over and over and just don't get tired of it.
As I've pointed out to friends and family, to find an album these days where you love almost all the songs instead of only (maybe) 2-3 of them is incredible and I HIGHLY recommend this album to anyone else interested in trying out something different. I've also ordered Muse's "Absolution" and am looking forward to that album as well.
Edit: Well, I've listened to "Absolution" and that is running a VERY close second to this album. I feel this one overall is a little more consistent, but both albums are well worth adding to your collection.