Black Holes and Revelations

For me this is muse’s third best album.Not a bad track on the album.I put this behind Origin Of Symmetry and Absolution which I think is their best.All three are must buys if you like their music or haven’t heard them before.

Does like me a bit of Muse, one of their best albums

The first time I heard "Black Holes and Revelations" I thought it was a poorer album than "Absolution", "Origin of Symmetry" and perhaps even "Showbiz" - it seemed to lack the power, rawness and melody that enriched those particular records. As a result I didn't listen to it again for a while, but I was prompted to do so again when my mp3 player chugged out a couple of its tracks on its random shuffle. And, having heard it again, I just kept replaying it!!How wrong you can be on a first, perhaps casual, hearing! I've revised my opinion entirely and now think this is their best yet. It is a development from the previous albums: the musical arrangements are richer, the lyrics deeper and the production slicker. But you still get Muse - powerful guitar driven rock with melody aplenty.In terms of development, "Assassin" and "Exo-politics" pick up from where "Absolution" left off - lots of power, pace and great riffs. Brilliant stuff! Moving on, there are a couple of songs where they have managed to combine power with "pop" - "Starlight" is very catchy for instance. Elsewhere, you get beautiful harmonies that I've not heard before with Muse - the gorgeous, powerful "Supermassive Black Hole" is a good example."Soldier's Tale", a lament about the injustices facing soldiers fighting on the "front-line" thousands of miles away, is another song benefiting from rich harmonies. It is then cleverly musically linked to the following song, "Invincible" - a clarion call for those same and other, similar individuals to take strength from the uniqueness and power of their own souls as a means of resisting and fighting injustice.But the biggest musical surprise is reserved for the trio of songs that close the album: "City of Delusion", "Hoodoo" and "Knights of Cyclonia". It is in these songs that the musical development moves on apace. Muse are sceptical of the "prog rock" tag that some people place on them: however, song writing as exemplified here moves them further into that camp, whilst still retaining enough of their root sound to keep their existing fans happy. What we have in these songs is a development in the complexity of the instrumentation and arrangements: acoustic guitars, lush orchestral strings and trumpets playing Spanish and other continental themes, enhanced sound effects etc."City of Delusion" is possibly the most complex of the arrangements, building on the acoustic guitar and continental themes of the orchestra and trumpet to develop into a powerful rock number. "Hoodoo" opens with flamenco style guitar riff, developing into a slow number with gentle orchestration and classical piano, again building to a more traditional rock band sound towards the end. The sound of horses galloping heralds the start of "Knights of Cyclonia" and a chase theme develops on trumpet, drums and rock guitar as the song builds to a crescendo.The album's songs were recorded chronologically, so the last three, most complex numbers, are the most recent. This opens up exciting prospects for the next Muse album should they decide to continue with the development.Finally, the lyrics throughout the album are consistently more political and meaningful than we've had from Muse before. The album closes with the words "The time has come to make things right; you and I must fight for our rights; you and I must fight to survive"; a theme which has been developed and repeated from the opener "Take a Bow". Matthew Bellamy, the band's inspirational leader, is clearly a man with a mission. Many bands have tried this in the past, going back to my day and before - but unfortunately my generation has not managed the planet and its peoples too well during its tenure - I sincerely hope Matthew and his generation do a better job!

One off the best album love this album

This album was also my 1st Muse CD back in 2006, so it was about time I got it the vinyl.Map Of The Problematique is still a top song of mine and to hear it used in the last season of Umbrella Academy was perfection.

The "Mad Scientists of Rock" have done it again. With this new album, Muse have really taken their music to a new level. Based around a space/alien theme, Black Holes and Revelations is a collection of 11 truely brilliant songs.The highly anticipated album sold 115, 144 in it's first week, and as of January 2007, it has sold more than two million copies worldwide. It's no surprise then, that Muse are enjoying themselves more than most bands out there just now.The cover of the album actually explains alot about the album. It pictures four men sitting around a table outside on a red surface. In the distance you can see planet Earth and it's moon. The place the men are is supposed to by Cydonia, as heard in the song "Knights of Cydonia". There are also four minature horses on the table.TRACK ONE: Take A Bow - This is a great opener with plenty of strings highlighting the music. It ends with a huge collection of noise and instantly breaks into track two.TRACK TWO: Starlight - One of the singles from the album, Starlight has been said to sound a little bit like Keane, because of the big piano theme throughout the song.TRACK THREE: Supermassive Black Hole - Another single, this one is a little more funky, with a really thumping bassline working well with the drums. Matt Bellemy shows off his wide vocal range.TRACK FOUR: Map of the Problematique - This is a very high energy song with alot of electronic sound features. You might recognise it from the early trailers for "Children of Men"TRACK FIVE: Soilder's Poem - A calmer, more relaxed song. This one is really haunting, there are a lot of backing vocals in it making it sound as though it is sung by ghosts ... I don't know if that was supposed to be the effect!TRACK SIX: Incincible - This is a really inspirational sounding song. It begins with an organ and marching drums, and goes on to a loud, epic ending.TRACK SEVEN: Assasin - Another high energy song. The drums are particularly good in this one. Pure Muse.TRACK EIGHT: Exopolitics - One of the rockier songs on the album, just a generally good song. Nothing much stands out but it's certianly not a weak song.TRACK NINE: City of Delusion - Begins with just an acousic guitar and vocals, but still sounds urgant from the start. Probably one of the best songs on the album. Again, this one uses strings a lot.TRACK TEN: Hoodoo - This is quite a schizophrenic song, as it changes rapidy from being loud and soft, quick and slow, and so forth.TRACK ELEVEN: Knights of Cydonia - This song is just amazing. It's a through compsed song with not that much lyrics, but a lot of voice is used! Theres alot of brass used. It builds up to a heavy chorus of harmonies singing "No one's gonna take me alive, time has come to make things right, you and I must fight for our rights, you and I must fight to survive".Definitly worth the money, and definitly one of the best albums in reent years.

One of their best. Up there with Showbiz IMO.Great opening and finishing tracks.

Bought it as a gift, they play it all the time