The men in question are Chris Wolstenholme, Dominic Howard and Matthew Bellamy, a.k.a Muse, one of the best British rock bands of the 21st century, have won so so many awards, mainly for anthems, being amazing live and for making such cracking albums that they receive critical acclaim, international status and most of all - they headline. Performing is what they're best at, and it's one of the top things on my bucket list to see them live. I almost got a chance to last year, but I had to sell my tickets to T in the Park... Anger ensued. So, Muse. Where to start...
Showbiz; debut album, released in 1999, got Muse a lot of recognition in the rock world, but not much in the public domain. My top song from this album is Muscle Museum, with a killer bass line and a tremendous vocal from Bellamy, you can see the development from this tune into the second album, recently played in its entirety at Leeds & Reading 2011: Origin of Symmetry, originally released in 2001.
There are many great tunes from this album. My personal favourite, and one of the first songs I ever heard by them, immediately fell in love with then downloaded three whole albums based on that one track, is Plug In Baby. I'd never heard anything like it. The lyrics don't make much sense, and I didn't know what I was really falling in love with when it happened, but I recognise now, I just loved the music. Guitars, drums, bass, and a vocal that aren't put together by Simon Fuller. I was 13 or 14 when I heard this song, and up until then, I had heard pop. My sisters' music taste had rubbed off on me, and things like Led Zeppelin and Guns 'n' Roses never caught my attention because they were old and boring, and I didn't want to be like my Dad. Muse was my first step to becoming a unique entity, to having my own taste and voice and most of all, a newly found love of rock. This is the main reason why I was friends with the guys we knew when we were 15 - because they too loved the rock, they loved to rock, and they did a pretty sweet cover of Time Is Running Out.
Anyway, back to Muse. Origins of Symmetry's most famous, loved and absolute 'toon' is New Born, closely followed by Hyper Music, Bliss, Dark Shines and Feeling Good, one of their most famous covers, but not the best. They covered Radiohead's Creep, The Animal's House of the Rising Sun, U2's Where The Streets Have No Name (performed with The Edge at Glastonbury), and many more. Matt's voice is amazing, as it's both very unique, and totally adaptable to different genres and styles of music. And so we come to the album which Muse are probably best known for, in my generation at least, because these tunes got a LOT of radio play, and they did Glastonbury 2004 with this album tour and stole the show. Literally.
Absolution, 2004:
Words can't describe how this album makes me feel. Memories I will forever cherish are reignited purely at the sound of the bass line. Emotions which I couldn't handle, anger I couldn't displace and the weight of puberty, growing up and moving on were all solved somehow by this album. I remember listening to it really loud, one of the first times I listened to music loud in a room, not just in my headphones, and Dad stormed in, telling me to turn it the fuck down. I was so happy that I got him angry that day. Muse helped me realise how to get attention, even if its the wrong kind; that alone sculpted the next three years of my existence.
I won't do every song, as tempted as I am. Just the most rockingly awesome ones! Time Is Running Out - This song will never get old. Ever. This song makes me feel 15 again, fancying a guy called Matt and just WISHING that his surname was Bellamy... Stockholm Syndrome: Just for the lyric "this is the last time I'll forget you". Going through heartbreak, this song can cure you in ways you wouldn't imagine it could. Hysteria: I used to listen to this album on my old iPod on school bus. I always wanted to sing this out loud, but obviously never could. Very addictive. Very good at waking you up at 7am. Butterflies and Hurricanes: this gets used a lot in adverts, promotional things etc. "You've got to be the best, you've got to change the world". This is probably Matt Bellamy's mantra. As a 15 year old 'emo' struggling at school and not knowing what the hell the point in all of it was, this song helped me get a grip on life, and more so, on myself: figure out exactly who I am and what I want. I love this band for that - they gave me the vision to just follow my heart, and fight through the obstacles, because it's worth it in the end. That's what my sisters don't understand about me - they don't see what has been driving me all these years. They think I'm driven by boys, or looks, or this longing to be someone I'm not. I'm driven by this notion that Muse put in my head: you can be everything you want to be, you just have to fight pretty hard for it. Nothing worth having comes easily.
And so, to Black Holes and Revelations, 2006. I remember going out to Virgin Mega-stores to buy this - back in the day! I also bought Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight at the same time. A friend bumped into me in Virgin, saw the two CDs in my hands, and said "fuck yes, and fuck no" (he had heard LP's newest was shit so didn't like it). I remember thinking "well, fuck you!" when he said this. I didn't need someone to judge my music taste. I was so excited about both these albums - two bands I'd been waiting SO long for the newest material from. And I was not disappointed.
Supermassive Black Hole: Muse's first single from the album, and one of their opening songs to set lists, this one really gets the crowds going. Not much to it, just a good party anthem really! Assassin: just good music, exactly what you want from a rock album. Knights of Cydonia: since this album, they've closed almost every gig with this. Such a long song when they do it full justice, so intricately put together, classic lyrics and a belter of a chorus which makes it a Muse classic through and through. "Don't waste your time, your time will waste you". Just soak up the gods that came from Teignmouth, Devon, and performed there again in a hail to their home town in this very intimate gig that the whole town could hear. Jealous. Very jealous.
It should be noted that they released an album Hullabaloo which was a live recording of their greatest tunes, with a few news ones or altered ones, and it was really cool.
The Resistance, 2009: I don't want to mention Twilight, but I have to. Stephenie Meyer asked Muse specifically to write a song for Eclipse. They did. I won't post it, but it's a good song. She is a massive fan, and was inspired by I think Supermassive Black Hole when she first wrote twilight (that and she had a dream about a vampire). So, Muse got a whole lot bigger when they were involved heavily in a Hollywood soundtrack. But more so, Muse released this album on iTunes as a fully downloaded thing, with music videos, 'making of' videos etc, and you get to see what really happens behind the scenes. Its an insight into the mind of Matt Bellamy, as Dom and Chris just laze around a lot, and after this album came out I read in NME that Chris' alcohol addiction was so bad that he barely turned up to record this album - a lot of it was done by either Matt or some poor random bassist they found. This album shows the true aspirations that the band have: they make many connections with Queen, and some older rock, rather than the 90s rock like Radiohead that they were always so closely associated with. They wanted to break the mold, push the boundaries, and see what else they can do. Technology is moving so fast that they could do a lot more with this album than with Showbiz, and I read somewhere that Matt sometimes wishes he could re-record Showbiz and do different things with it, but he knows that it's an entity of its time and he can't and shouldn't mess with what they did ten years ago. I love the notion that he can pick holes in his own work. People spending so long telling him he's a rock god, a musical legend and an absolute genius, but he still has a voice saying "but I could still do better". That gives me confidence that albums will get better and better as they go. It's when Matt says "I've done it, I've created a masterpiece, and its totally perfect" that Muse will fall. Fingers crossed that shall never happen.
So, Uprising: the opener. The 'rock anthem' of 2009, or something. They opened their show at the Wembley Stadium with this and there is no good footage but it looks fucking incredible. I wish I had been there. So very jealous. Resistance: My favourite of this album, and this clip is from their Resistance Tour, which has one of the coolest set pieces ever. I remember hearing an interview with them prior to the tour starting, and Matt was describing the three pillars, his own idea, like sky scrapers, and Dom piped in just to say "oh, and I'm spinning round. Ever tried to play the drums spinning round? This may be the last interview we ever do..." I laughed, and then I looked up tickets, and they were sold out, WORLD WIDE. I couldn't even pop to Europe to see them. Damn liking such a popular band. I now see why Martin loves the underdog so much... United States of Eurasia: The experiment. An orchestra, with this Arabian-esque music, and a Freddy Mercury-esque ending. They were worried fans wouldn't like it. I love it. I think they could do a whole album with a full orchestra and very little vocals and it would be stunning. But, they're rockers, they probably don't want to. Oh well.
I think next year, along with the birth of Baby Hudson-Bellamy (it's rumoured they'll call it Kurt if a boy), Muse begin work on album number six. I have many expectations, most of them great, but am bearing in mind my fathers advise, "always expect the unexpected". I hope that they continue to make music for years. I hope that they are going to do a tour soon which I can go to, and fulfill one of my dreams. I hope, most of all, that the three men who have inspired me to be unique and to follow my dreams can do so themselves. They are amazing people, they make me proud to be British, and they deserve every recognition they have received.
Thank you Muse.