If you have grown tired of major chords and sunny pop vocals and are waiting for a CD to pick up between Radiohead releases, then Muse’s latest effort, Absolution, will satisfy most of your needs.
From the fragile vibrato vocals to the heart wrenching chord progressions, Muse provide the listener with a near carbon copy of OK Computer-era Radiohead. Although many of the songs explore a wide variety of tones and experimental production techniques, they are unable to escape or venture far from their older predecessors.
This album can easily be paired with Starsailor’s latest release, Silence Is Easy. Both albums pair strong vocals with musical arrangements that fail to take these bands to another level. The forgettable instrumental performances keep Muse from being anything more than a cheap imitation of something truly groundbreaking.
Despite all this, the vocal performance of Matthew Bellamy is absolutely stunning and, although his songwriting skills are shaky at best, he manages to write a few powerful hooks that show potential and leave the listener optimistic about the future of Muse.
Muse will be playing at Brick by Brick on May 3 at 8 p.m.