Muse has waited nearly 3 and a half years since Absolution, the album many believe would become their swan song in later years, to bring us Black Holes and Revelations and the time and effort put in to this album really shows.
Rich Costey, the man behind Rage Against the Machine and Doves produced this newest album, and with Bellamy’s level of musical genius and innovation they have created a rather good album.
The melodies are where you want them to be, the breakdowns come when you want them, the right instruments take precedence at the right times, it does not get much better than this
The album begins with a ‘Take a Bow’, a simply but really quite nice electronic piece, similar to what we might imagine from ‘Kid A’ era Radiohead, but with a certain fantasy element mixed in to it, it builds to and almost Pink Floyd-esque climax. For a song so fragile and gentle the lyrics are also really quite sinister with Bellamy asking the world “take a bow for its sins”, what may be distorted screams appear on the end, disturbing!
After this rather disconcerting start, we move onto Starlight, the song from which lyrics the album takes its name. Once again very gentle, Bellamy’s vocals dominate the song, however the early keyboard riff permeates throughout, remaining just underneath the chorus. Very nice.
Next comes Supermassive Black Hole, the single release from this album, and the first song to feature a typical ‘Time is Running Out’ style big guitar riff. This is also the first song where Don Howard and Chris Wolstenholme, get to really exercise their backing vocals, which have moved on leaps and bounds from Absolution.
Matter of the Problematic features next and is definitely my favourite song on the album; it opens with a Depeche Mode style keyboard riff over shadowing Bellamy’s guitar, reminiscent of ‘Enjoy the Silence’. Nearly a minute into this, Bellamy’s vocals appear and the only add to what is already great, we also see the first appearance of some technical drumming from Dom Howard, he is really allowed to shine in this song. This song is one that can truly be described as BIG.
As ‘Soldier’s Poem’ starts we might be forgiven for thinking we were listening to a 50’s crooning love song, musical it’s very much along the lines of Elvis’ ‘Fools Rush In’. A very odd addition to this album of epic riffs and big noises, but it breaks the album apart.
Invincible opens with an almost whale song like intro, very chilled out. We pick up on Wolstenholme’s bass lines for the first time here, they’re nothing to get excited about yet but it’s first time we can really tell he’s there alongside Howard’s drums which have returned to a simple marching beat. Until that is the last minute and a half of the song when these two musicians are really allowed to show their stuff. Bellamy elects to take what can only be described as a back seat on this, the solo is memorable but there is no really massive riff. Allowing for some good work from Wolstenholme and Howard.
Track 7 Assasin, again changes the direcion of the album complately, opening with a lone lead guitar drawing us into a thrash metal style intro, more like what me might expect from the likes of Slayer than Muse. As soon as Bellamy’s vocals kick in though, we return comfortably the world of alternate indie prog rock, however that thrash bridge keeps on cropping up, and is very well realised, the metal heads are really going to enjoy this one.
Exo-poltics places us back into proto Muse territory, with a sing along chorus, which takes us back to the days of indie rock, and cool Britannia, something like Primal Scream meet The Manic Street Preachers. Nothing massive about this song, it’s simply a case of Muse revisiting their early influences.
Some nice acoustic guitar work appears on the City of Delusion, and this song has a very Latin feel to it, it takes on elements of Latin Jazz, with a slightly out of place but interesting Sax solo toward the end. All of this coupled with Wolstenholme’s bass lines and Howard’s drums adds to make what might appear to initially be a rather mediocre song come to a wonderful crescendo, if Assassin was one for the metal heads this is for the Jazz lovers.
The Latin theme carries on to the song Hoodoo, with a Flamenco openeing, interesting for it’s placing in the song rather than it’s actually realisation. Bellamy once again shows us he piano skills on this song, very pretty, if perhaps not quite so massive as his work on ‘Butterflies and Hurricanes’, although perhaps that was only so noticeable because the piano solo was in such contrast to the main song.
With the finale of the album ‘Knights of Cydonia’ (the men featured on the front of the album, and the four horsemen of the apocalypse), the band goes all out, with an opening featuring horses and lasers, no doubt alluding to a battle in some distant future, the sort of thing I’d expect from ‘Number of the Beast’ era Iron Maiden.
Carrying into a guitar riff and vocal harmony that could feature in any Western film, the riff becomes distorted though and we know we are firmly back on planet Bellamy, of the Muse galaxy. The keyboard even carries this theme through as it begins to sound more and more like the galloping of hoofs.
The solo around 4 and a half minutes in, although not particularly technical is defiantly as rocky as Muse have ever got, a true head banger. This is going to become a true live favourite.
All in all, this is a brilliant album; there are perhaps one or two filler song on here, and on an 11-track album that is rather impressive. What Muse have done Black Holes, is go mental, and produce something which incorporates elements of everything that influences them. One of the best albums of this year so far. There is something on here for everyone.
8/10.
