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By Jasmine Michaelson
No doubt Europe has a lot of secrets it keeps from the United States. IT's very good at it. But by far its best kept secret is a rock trio from Teignmouth, England, called Muse. Here's just how well the band members have managed to keep this out of our radar: their third and latest album, Absolution, released basically everywhere but here on Sept. 22, hit No. 1 on the UK charts within a week. They've recently graced the covers of several major mags including NME and had an entire weekend devoted to them on MTV2 Europe. But do you know them? Probably not. Their American fans are the kind of people who are exhaustive about finding new music to add to their collections, and are willing to fork over plenty of moolah for import albums that would otherwise never grace U.S. soil. Needless to say, all eight of these fans are diehards. For the rest of you, here's a brief description of Muse. Critics keep comparing them to Radiohead, which is true in the sense that neither band can really be compared to any other band. But, unless Radiohead has developed ADHD without my knowledge, this is not a very good comparison. More valid is perhaps Queen, in the sense that every song is no less than an anthem. Headed by Matthew Bellamy, a wirey, black-haired young man with a greasy smile and a voice that will send shivers down your spine, the band is exactly what would happen if Mozart, an ex-Broadway star and a Martian started a metal band. Take Apocalypse, Please, the first song off Absolution.>/I> It begins with Bellamy dramatically pounding out stormy, classical-sounding chords on the piano, with a sound of marching feet in the background. His trademark forceful, shaking, gasping vocals set the scene like the hero marching onto stage calling his troops to action: "Declare this an emergency; Come on and spread a sense of urgency." Haunting harmony and falsetto give way to a fast drum and bass build, tension rises and it peaks with a -- you guessed it -- digital-sounding keyboard solo. And here's the freakiest part, the whole thing totally rocks. One thing's for dang sure, this band knows not the meaning of the term "background music." Every song they've ever put out is huge in every sense. And Absolution is no exception. It's packed with effects, Bellamy's over-the-top, wildly passionate vocals and quirky little additions like fingers snapping in time with the catchy, buzzy bass line in Time is Running Out, the addictive first single off the album. It hits a little closer to our blue planet than the band's rock opera-esque sophomore release, Origin of Symmetry, but is nowhere near as close as their debut, Showbiz, which still just grazed the atmosphere. The lyrics, well, let's face it, the lyrics in the liner notes of Absolution read a little like an angst-ridden 13-year-old's journal: "I can't remember when it was good; Moments of happiness elude; Maybe I just misunderstood." Wow! Someone just bought a rhyming dictionary! But any shallowness of lyrics is made up for tenfold in the music, which is packed with more than enough emotion to go around. You will either love or hate Muse and this album. There is zero middle ground. But if you love it, well, just be ready to hand over the Benjamins because these Brits aren't interested in any kind of invasion on U.S. turf. They and their cronies find it much more entertaining to watch us wallow in terrible music here while they are showering their homeland with diamonds. And frankly, can you blame them? NW .
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