| An English band crosses the ocean and brings their blend of electronica, rock and classical music to the United States and settles in. Mix in global conspiracy, theological questions about the apocalypse and belief in ET, and you would probably come out with a band that looks like Muse. Joining the talents of Matthew Bellamy, Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme together, the band has been performing for 12 years but their latest is certainly the most optimistic.
Mixing space, the apocalypse and political intrigue, Black Holes and Revelations didn’t win the Best Rock award at the 2006 MTV European Music Video Award for Best Rock, but at least one rocker present, The Killer’s Brandon Flowers (the winner), thought that they should have.
In “Take A Bow,” Muse attacks the corruption they observe in the Bush administration, and they’re taking no prisoners. “You’ll burn in hell…Our freedom’s consuming itself/What we’ve become/It’s contrary to what we want,” Bellamy rages. While the first may be theologically determined by Another, the second can certainly be said for most individual lives and the state of countries. Few people become what they intend, and many need to be reined in by the criticism of another—Muse is happy to oblige.
There is an optimism in the second single from the album, “Starlight,” as Bellamy sings about “our hopes and expectations/black holes and revelations,” opposite “You electrify my life/Let’s conspire to ignite/All the souls that would die just to feel alive.” Muse may not agree with where folks go when they die, but they’re certainly clamoring for more to embrace life than lose it. The same can be said for “Supermassive Black Hole,” exhibiting the same intense picture of the black hole as sucking everything living around it into deeper space. Muse doesn’t want to be lost, but it doesn’t know where to go, with broken relationships and unwanted addictions.
Turning away from the personal, the album veers onto the “Map of the Problematique,” calling out both sides of conspiracies to harm, and longing for a belief in something more. The “Soldier’s Poem” makes the conspiracy specific, with the present war at its core, “How could you send us all far away from home/When you know damn well that this is all/I would still lay down my life for you/And do you think you deserve your freedom?” Harsh criticisms, but they grow more widely shared by the day.
I still prefer the optimism, standing in the face of everything unworthy, in “Invincible.” “You should make a stand/stand up for what you believe/And tonight we can truly say/Together we’re invincible,” sings Bellamy. Strange for conspiracy theorists, but these guys are calling for creation of a community where no one is alone. Community—what a grand idea, to break down the walls of the conflict and build up peace. |