ABSOLUTION

Released in 2003 "Absolution" is rock trio Muse's third album. This is a decent album but will also always be remembered for me as an inside joke within my family for years. I bought the CD when it came out but pretty soon after lost it. It wasn't until a few years ago when my dad was sorting through my CDs he found it in another CD wallet. As I say you probably had to be there :-P. Anyway, this album had it all to do following debut album "Showbiz" and second album "Origin of Symmetry". Particularly "Origin of Symmetry" which was so full of ambition and potential. They set the standard very high, and it was intriguing which direction they would take next.

Well although there are not many bands out there like Muse, I do feel they took the safer option with "Absolution". Going for the big sounding rock songs, in general shorter tracks, mixed in with some slower ballad type songs which were missing from "Origin of Symmetry" but it wasn't to the detriment of the album. Far from it. To be honest I don't think "Absolution" is their best album but it's not their worse either. And I think in terms of a steppingstone to make them bigger it worked. "Time is running out" was their first top ten single at this point and three other singles went inside the top 20 in the UK charts.

Now you have to remember that this was 2003 and streaming services weren't about. So, singles in the run up to the album really defined the success of the album. And 3 of the singles in particular - "Time is running out", "Hysteria" and "Stockholm Syndrome" all sound absolutely massive and are huge rock anthems and are still some of Muse's best songs. So having released these songs as well as having 2 solid albums preceding this; They had more than enough material for a top class set list for touring. And the "Absolution" tour was the first time I saw Muse. To be honest I don't remember much from the gig. But I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it.

So, we know the singles really made a difference for Muse but what about the rest of "Absolution". Well, the first track is just named "Intro" and is very short sitting at 20 seconds as it acts like a step ladder into the album with the sound of soldiers marching getting louder and louder until track 2 "Apocalypse Please" comes in with the snappy, dramatic piano playing. I think the best deep cut of this album is "Small print". On some of their other albums this could have been released as a single but other diamonds just shone brighter in this album.

But I think the difference with this album compared to their first two albums is that there are tracks on here which I don't look forward to listening to. Particularly "Blackout" and "Endlessly" which are just so slow and laboured. On "Showbiz" they had tracks like "Unintended" which showed they can nail these types of tracks, but it feels the two tracks on "Absolution" take the album down a notch. Another song which may surprise people that disappoints me slightly is "Butterflies and Hurricanes". This is for me the most ambitious track on the album. And when you first listen to it and the first few minutes it is great. Good riff, good vocals etc. But the piano bridge doesn't work for me at all. The song stops at a point during this too and just sounds a bit of a mess. It's like it had the potential to be an amazing song but they didn't quite pull it off.

But I think overall, there is enough on here that it is a good, passable album. The monster singles carry the album and really secured their place as an arena sized band at this point in their career. They were always going to reach a point where quality control was going to be tested and I feel some of the tracks on here wouldn't even have made b-sides to singles off their first album. But there you go. Let's look at the positives though. However, you look at it, this was a key step in Muse's rise to the top.