SHOWBIZ

Muse are considered to be one of the more creative bands of the modern music scene, not just in Prog. However, don't look too hard for that here on the trio's debut album Showbiz as this tends to be a much more straight forward rock album with clear influences from early Radiohead, songs like Creep.

The opening couple of songs on this album (Sunburn and Muscle Museum) are very much done in the style that is more readily recognizable as Muse to people that are aware of the bands more well known later albums. These two songs put me very much in mind of the following album to Showbiz, Origin of Symmetry, by making quite obvious use of the piano and mellatron, instrumentation that quite clearly shows were this band is likely to head (and did) if they are adventurous enough to use such instruments.

From here on out, though, the music is more straight forward mid to up- tempo rock with only a few small parts here and there that are more what you would expect from Muse. The title track Showbiz could probably be grouped with the first two songs as well, but the middle of this song is very similar to the rest of the album, relatively simple, driving, guitar riffs that you would expect from a popular rock band. The two tracks that do stand out as being unique on this track are Unintended and Hate This And I'll Love You. Both are more of the slow ballad type of song but they work rather well and fit in to the album well enough.

If your looking for a mainstream band that is trying to do something new instead of the usual Indie rock that you tend to get, this album only gives you glimmers of that, something that would really start coming to the fore in latter releases. This is not a bad album but some of the tracks have a samey quality to them that detracts from the feel of the album. I'll give this 2 stars because there's no Prog on this album whatsoever and that the band will do much better latter on. Good for fans of the band and people that are just looking for a rock album that's just a little bit more than the average fair.

On a side note, I really love the alien landscape cover to the album, a really imaginative cover that's quite nice and for gaming fans you might recognise the track Sober from Gran Tourismo 2.