This ship has taken me far away from the memories of the people who care if I live or die...

When I went to read up on the English band Muse, I kept coming across comparisons to Radiohead. Approaching the band through their latest album, Black Holes And Revelations, I don’t get it. I see more of a similarity to a poppier version of Soundgarden than to the properly spacedout-ness of Yorke & friends. Black Holes was the breakthrough to superstardom (at least in the UK) the band needed, and the album works very well as a successor to such prog-rock titans through the years as Yes, Asia or ELP. The first track, “Take A Bow”, is deceiving though, being more of an intro interlude than a proper song itself; taken on its own merits, its actually the low part of the album. Things pick up fast from there, though, with the power-pop of “Starlight” (which I could imagine being a dug-up Ultravox tune from back in the day), “Supermassive Black Hole” (the most Chris-Cornell-in-his-funkiest-like), and the epic “Map Of The Problematique”. After another quieter interlude “Soldier’s Poem”, the band puts forst the highlight of the disc, the sweeping love-song “Invincible”. As the album progresses, the theme gets more focused as a storyline piece, with the tracks “Assassins”, “Exopolitics” and “City Of Delusion” working well together as a piece to construct a futuristic scene (which, I guess, is kinda Radiohead-like). They are followed by the spookier “Hoodoo” to the dynamic sci-fi closer “Knights Of Cydonia”. By focusing on a more urgent arrangement than RH, Muse succeeds in charting its own course with a very appealing album that more harkens back to 1973 than 2003.

Grade: B+
Best Cuts: “Starlight”, “Supermassive Black Hole”, “Map Of The Problematique”, “Invincible”, “Exopolitics”, “City Of Delusion”, “Knights Of Cydonia”
Weakest Links: “Take A Bow”

Black Holes And Revelations hit #9 in the US and #1 in the UK.
"Supermassive Black Hole" hit #40 modern rock and #4 in the UK.
"Knights Of Cydonia" made #10 modern rock and #10 in the UK.
"Starlight" made #101 pop, #2 modern rock, and #13 in the UK.
"Invincible" hit #21 in the UK.

To Listen: "Invincible" (link)

To Buy: You can go to sites like here and here.

Videos galore! Here's the video for "Supermassive Black Hole"...