Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Arguably it could be said that Absolution, Muse’s third studio album, was the recording that announced the band onto the wider world and certainly from the moment Absolution was released they haven’t looked back.
Muse certainly set a great impression right from the start by having the artistic work of celebrated graphic designer Storm Thorgerson make his mark on the cover. Just as with every album his work has accompanied, it is visually impressive; it creates a talking point for the fans before they even have placed the C.D. in the drawer. Like so many of his works there seems to be hidden messages for the listener to take in but one thing is abundantly clear, the feelings of apocalyptical proportions are in keeping with the whole message of the album. With the shadows of human beings in flight as if mimicking the actions of the Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan whilst a single man stands below looking up at the human/plane and around him the shadows of those incinerated by the blast is haunting. The ineffective gas mask hangs limply by his side as if he knows that to place in on his head would be a futile act.
From this graven but visually stunning cover the album conforms to the idea that if a band puts so much thought into the cover then the music to be found within must be erring on the side of stunning. With no doubts whatsoever, Absolution is a masterpiece of lyrical idea and music put together and sits proudly to this day with the epic The Resistance as one of the two finest albums produced by the group so far.
Cruelly there are those that suggest that Muse from this point sound like an offspring of Freddie Mercury, whilst there certainly is the sense of the dramatic, the abundance of stage and theatre wrapped up in the music and delivery, Muse are certainly their own men and whilst likenesses and similarities are always bound to come up in any type of artistic endeavour, what comes through is the idea of independent spirit, the absolute conviction in what they are producing is not just an album but art. Freddie Mercury had that and so do Muse, However whereas Queen’s lyrics were beautifully flamboyant, Muse are rugged, dangerously more real and dealing within the realms of negative emotions. The show is there but it is a dark performance, dealing with the bleak and uncertain.
The track Time Is Running Out is standout, a driving beast which has all the hallmarks of a classic but whose delivery could be suggested as being simple and effective. Whilst the video showed the song as a war council meeting, the imagery of sex and sexual nature drives the lyrics home of a man who knows that he cannot help his actions, his love or even lust for the woman he has become fixated upon is killing him; the addiction is too strong. Some people get addicted to wealth, money, the thought of owning more and more possessions, others seek solace in the arms of alcohol or drugs, for some though the desire of another human being, the allure of what they represent what is missing in that person’s life can be just as dangerous. The narrator suggests that he is drowning and struggling to breath, the air around him not enough to keep him from going under completely. He knows he has to break the pattern of their mutual assured obsession but he is placing his anger and torment on her shoulders. The song is a contradiction, it plays with the idea that the narrator wants out, to breathe fresh air and start anew but he also refuses to let his partner kill it, to smother it and finish the process, this is a man who knows he is addicted to the power and captivation of the person but cannot ultimately let it go, the only answer, as with the parallels of war is too see it out until no one is left standing. What is left will just be the shell of two people who took their relationship far too far.
Matthew Ballamy’s voice is hypnotic throughout this song and the combination of Chris Wolstenholme’s bass and Dominic Howard’s drums are a powerful statement. The three vital ingredients combining in a track that kicks you repeatedly, the words although simple have the power of meaning that millions can identify with, a song that knows the infallibility of human need.
Stockholm Syndrome takes the authority and musical muscle of Time Is Running Out and pushes it further, the muscle that understands how to get inside the listeners head and rummages just a little bit more and perhaps can be seen as the natural progression in which Time Is Running Out emerges. Stockholm Syndrome is angry, furious, not just in the lyrics which feel as if the obsession has become an act of loathing in which one of the two people has become needful rather than strong and the allure of that strength has been taken away, it has been replaced by the sentiment of distaste, of repugnance and disgust but mindful of what was in their hearts before. Like the narrator of Time Is Running Out, there is a feeling of being trapped, of imprisonment in a destructive relationship but with the more vicious underlying theme of unsaid hatred for another human being.
With the apocalyptical themes running through the album, it is perhaps natural to see war and love as being two sides of the same coin, we can either coexist together or fall apart and destroy one another. There seems to be no mid-way ground and like war, when love turns to hate there is no real victor, no chance of forgiveness in the hearts of those involved.
Muse hasn’t just created something insanely brilliant with Absolution, it speaks to the very base emotions within all, which of love and hate, desire, lust and anger. In their third album, Muse created something absolutely stunning and one that never seems to get old.
Ian D. Hall