ORIGIN OF SYMMETRY

Muse's first album 'Showbiz' was a bit dissapointing for me, and seeing as I listened to the debut after listening to two fantastic records by the band ('Black Holes And Revelations' and 'Absolution') I found myself in a bit of a rut with the band. The debut had very little going for it, and wasn't very distinguishable from the loads of alternative rock getting spewed out of the UK.

But enough about 'Showbiz.'

After having lost my faith with the band for a little while, I decided to pick up the one album of theirs that I had missing 'Origin Of Symmetry.' I had heard some very good things about the album; Q Magazine even rated it as the 76th Greatest Album of All Time. Naturally, I was intrigued and wanted to see what the buzz was about.

After having given 'Origin Of Symmetry' a fair amount of listening time and consideration, I would have to say that it stands as being the band's second most enjoyable album, after 'Black Holes And Revelations.' Despite not being as amazing as the aforementioned winner was to me, this feels like the quintessential Muse album nontheless. There is everything here that the band is known for - ethereal melodies, soaring melodies, and a bombastic sense of 'epic' that makes the band's sound both memorable and powerful.

This album also has the band's best song (in my opinion) 'Citizen Erased.' While it never really hit me at first (the main riff sounded very noisy and unnecessary initially) I realized how perfect of a composition it was. Being a mini-suite of sorts, it covers a wide range of emotions, and is sure to appeal to prog fans provided they give it the time of day.

All in all, 'Origin Of Symmetry' is a good album for someone to start out their experience with Muse. Despite being flawed in a few areas (for example, 'Hyper Music' is frankly hyper-irritating) but there is some fantastic material here, that deserves to be explored. Four stars.

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