Album of the week
Black Holes and Revelation's-Muse
It's all over.Muse win.Nothing else released this year could beat this album for sheer ambition and musical scale.The British trio summon up their inner Queen and manage to match that legendary band in every department,from Matt Bellamy's soaring falsetto vocals to the stadium guitars and drums meets rock opera orchestrations.
The album closer,Knights of Cydonia,is Muse's Bohemian Rhapsody, introduced by the sound of the four horsemen of the apocalypse riding into town backed by spaghetti western guitars which give way to a synth and horns extravaganza that Andrew Lloyd Webber will almost certainly be ripping off for his next musical.
Elsewhere,Bellamy and his bandmates seem to be channelling almost every worthy band to spring from their shores,
from Led Zeppelin to Radiohead.
On starlight, the frontman is crooning like Thom Yorke and Tom from Keane's lovechild while the most simple and infectious piano hook has your hips swinging and your arms air-conducting.
The single,Supermassive Black Hole,
could take out indie rock track of the year,with a sexy,funk heart out of Prince's vaults while it's guitar hook is totally Enjoy Your Silence era Depeche Mode.
Irresistible electro track Map of the problematique also follows in that band's footsteps albeit with a Peter Hook bassline.
Muse have made a brilliant record which just gets better and better with every listen.Can't wait to see them at a stadium near us soon.
Kathy McCabe The Daily Telegraph 13/07/06
*Also great artwork included *
