Muse Absolution label: Warner Bros. released: 03.24.04 our score: 2.0 out of 5.0

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Webster defines the word “muse” as “to think closely, study in silence or meditate.” I wish I was doing either of those instead of listening to the band Muse’s fourth album Absolution - an album full of grunge Euro-rock layered with a blanket of fuzz distoring almost all that is good.

This trio, led by Matthew Bellamy, (who could be Thom Yorke’s long lost twin brother) would be Radiohead if Radiohead had gone on the Euro-rock path instead of the trippy electronic-and-random-blip track. But whereas Radiohead did the right thing by choosing the road less traveled, Muse sadly have not.

Absolustion's most interesting track lies in “Thoughts of a Dying Atheist.” It is a, dare I say, meditative track on what goes through the mind of a dying atheist and begs the question, “Look through a faithless eye/ Are you afraid to die?”

If it’s fuzz-rock you're looking for, look no further than “Blackout.” Overwrought with static and audio garbage , it's hard to decipher if the song is actually playing or if the dial on the stereo needs to be changed.

Yet, Muse do have their positive moments. The last song, "Ruled By Secrecy," is by far the album's best, mostly because it is nothing like the rest of the album. This reserved, yet biting, ballad wonderfully captures how little the general public knows about what’s actually going on in the world. “Your death creates success, rebuild, suppress / Change in the air and they’ll hide everywhere/ And no one knows who’s in control.”

Overall, however, Absolution fails to live up to expectations. Muse does a good job taking a decent album and distorting it to a bunch of noise with no real direction at all. On this album, Muse just seems lost.
18-Jul-2004 8:00 PM

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