Muse - Absolution

**** - Great

FIRST OFF, a statement: with Absolution Muse have risen - glided even - to a level that might seriously and honestly be called brilliance. And this, their third studio album, is a work of brilliance, from every angle and in every sense. From nothing more than a melody or phrase borne between Matt’s ears (Bellamy being Muse’s solo songwriter) to something shaped by musicians, and finally how best to translate this live song to a permanent home on a silver disc that will be bought by strangers. And this cup to lip manoeuvre Muse manage without spilling a drop. In fact, Absolution sounds instinctively and assuredly complete that it can be listened to in two very different ways - either as a collection of rock songs and nothing else, or else as a work of art that can be stripped apart and admired from all manner of angles. You pays our money...

Absolution will, of course, be falling into record shops at a time of great uncertainty for many young bands. Alien Ant Farm only seemed to take a break for sandwiches yet came bouncing back to an audience that had also entirely disappeared (in a way that seemed almost like amnesia than fickleness). But, again, Muse are, if not unique, then at least unusual in the fact that this young band have an audience most of whom could be called ’hardcore’ and some of whom might be deemed ’mentally ill’. The reasons for this is simple - everything this band does stems from the music. Without the music Matt Bellamy is small, shy and slightly awkward; with the music he’s a rock star with moves of a Vegas showman. Such understanding and talent is, to say the least, unusual: and to see where the band might take their music in future years is almost without limit.

On Absolution - this, by the way, being the process of exonerating one not only of sin but also wiping clean any need for God’s forgiveness (ivery/i Muse, don’t you think?) - the group have grown out of the 180 degree mid-song change of idea and are instead having a go with control. There is a section of the band’s fan base that have caught wind of this news as the starting point for a long and depressing decline. Not so. Absolution is an album that fires into life on the first play - melodies and such - but remains inventive and complex enough that you’ll be noticing things God knows ho many months later. From the soaring and seriously progressive ’Apocalypse, Please’ (Absolution’s opening song - we join the story minutes after the end of the world) to the haunted piano and psychiatric ward singing of the odd and unsettling ’Stockholm Syndrome’ and over to the frenetic and unpleasant ’Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist’.

As a body of work somehow Absolution makes no sense at all and perfect sense throughout; its songs are accessible and enjoyable, but also are full of the tiniest and most deliberate details. Whether by intention or instinct, Muse have fallen into a more obvious form with Absolution, but made their least obvious album yet.

But perhaps most of all, Muse have made an album of such unapologetic vastness that, were it not for their talent, would have people up and across the country trying not to soil themselves with laughter. But the music is brilliant, so song tittles that sound like they were lifted from war poets suddenly speak of brass necks, balls and style.

The first thing Matt Bellamy tells you on this album is that the world has just ended, which is a bit of a facer anyway, but on the first song? Where are they going to go for the next three quarters of an hour? And then you realise that Muse could write a record about travelling through the galaxy and you’d nod your head. Because Muse have everything they need to grow into... God knows what. Because as long as Bellamy writes songs without reference to anything outside his imagination, then every morning for Muse and theirs fans will remain Anything Can Happen Day.

Ian Winwood