BLACK HOLES AND REVELATIONS

I was introduced to this band through this album by...wait for it..Guitar Hero 3. That's right, I was playing with my chum one day and we unlocked 'Knights of Cydonia' and we thought 'Man, this is a great song...and it's still going..and getting better..we must investigate this band!' And so we did. And we found out that they were on this sight. Go figure. I for one wouldn't really qualify them as a progressive band but they do have some progressive qualities. So on with the review already!

You can really tell which songs Muse worked hard on and which ones they didn't. The album seems to have three groups of songs on it: songs that show clear effort by the band to make a grand sound through build ups and emotion; songs that don't show that time and effort, but still sound reasonably good, and songs that are just filler. The first group, the truly astounding songs, includes 'Take a Bow' 'Invincible' 'Hoodoo' and 'Knights of Cydonia'. The second group include 'Starlight' 'Soldier's Poem' and 'City of Delusion.' The remaining songs..you guessed it: filler.

Now, the lyrics throughout the album are sub-par. I'm not a big fan of the depressive/sad/oh my God there's no hope we've ruined our world/Nihilistic lyrics. It's no surprise then that the song 'Invincible' is my favorite on the album, just with the atmosphere it presents and the good feeling you get afterwards. The way the song progresses truly is a treat; the performance of Mattew Bellamy on the guitar at the climax was just superb.

'Take a Bow' really is an incredible song and I'm glad it started the album. After hearing it, I knew I had found a band that continued where Radiohead left off when they went too far into their experimental phase. When I played this to my Father, he couldn't believe it wasn't Radiohead. But the song just keeps building and growing. I was blown away at the quality of this song, musically that is. The lyrics aren't the songs strong point.

'Hoodoo' starts off sounding like a great western soundtrack, and then backs off to a soothing ballad, and then slams into a powerful piano and string movement; an odd way of structuring a song, but I like it. It grabs the listener's attention and really makes an impact. The diversity of this song shows what the band is capable of, and when given the chance, can create great music.

'Knights of Cydonia', the 'mini epic' as some have called it, is one of those songs that you can't help but enjoy. 'Space Cowboys' would be the best way to describe it. They lyrics..well, we've been over that. This song is easily one that will be listened to over and over again and never get boring.

Too bad I can't say the same thing for the rest of the album. After listening to the rest of the songs a few times, they become boring and I find myself turned off by them. They just don't have the same feeling the 'Invincible' 'Take a Bow' 'Hoodoo' and 'Knights of Cydonia' present. There just seems to be something lacking in these tracks and I find myself skipping over them, which is a big problem when I listen to music.

So, all in all, this album has some priceless gems on it, but you have to shuffle through a bit of less then adequate music for it. The album would be better if the weaker songs didn't drag the enjoyment down from listening while listining to the album in its entirety. Three stars would be the respectable rating, since it weighs more on the better songs then the weaker ones.

"How can we win, when fools can be kings? Don't waste your time, or time will waste you."

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