Muse
Absolution

THE REVIEW

This album is like a falling star that, as it gets sucked into the sun's atmosphere, hits numerous meteoroids, causing explosions of enormous power, triggering a chain reaction that releases fantastic energy. The Muse's quintessential album, which has sold millions of copies worldwide and in the UK, represents a kind of "maturation" for the band. An album that invites us to travel through time and space.

The album starts with a sort of military march, as if an enormous war is preparing for its climax, and the listener is unaware of what might come after that march, which lasts a few seconds, but prepares you for a masterpiece. Then you hear a piano, playing in an almost twisted manner, and the Muse's singer accompanies us with his voice, telling us that this is indeed the end of the world, "This Is The End Of The World", the song titled "Apocalypse, Please", presents itself as an anthem to the end of everything, the end of the world, an apocalypse, precisely, that occurs only in the listener's mind, a kind of psychological end, a sweet end.

Then some notes make us realize that the song we are listening to is different, we notice it from the tones, no longer so bitter, by now we have reached the limbo, we are isolating ourselves from the world, and gradually the song increases in tone, literally exploding, a beautiful single that accompanied us through the hot summers of years past, this is "Time Is Running Out", a song that reminds me of many fears and joys from my past, it gives me chills when I listen to it.

With the next song, we are ready to depart, ready to go into orbit, traveling into the infinite and that sense of bewilderment that this album provokes, the song "Sing for Absolution", begins with an echoing chant, in an immense space, making us think of distant worlds, we will start to fantasize with our minds.

Coming out of that metaphysical dimension, where we had abandoned ourselves, we get to know the Muse better, the genuine ones full of energy and desire to play, who with the next song want to remind us of their past works, without distancing themselves from their new work, perfect and magnificent, so the tones mix, from the sense of infinity we move to pure rock, which becomes a perfect experimental symbiosis, let me introduce "Stockholm Syndrome", another single from this fantastic album.

The next song is a poem, ready to make us emotional, letting us enter a world where space doesn't exist, and the notes take us back to our childhood experiences, when our minds were free of thoughts, where days passed quietly, the beautiful memories that this song brings back to mind also make us reflect on our future, this is the beautiful rock ballad titled "Falling Away With You".

A small pause in the album brings us back to ourselves, after dreaming, it's time to go wild with "Hysteria", a song full of energy that explodes in the chorus, making us want to jump everywhere, go wild, like a child trapped in a room full of toys, destroying them, becoming "Hysterical" in essence, this single is accompanied by a video which I consider a masterpiece, perfectly encapsulating what I meant in these last lines.

Now it's time to close your eyes, imagine wandering through space, among a sea of stars, wandering with your mind as you prepare to spin around, the emotion that "Blackout" provokes is this. Let yourself be lulled, empty your mind, and... Dream.

"Butterflies And Hurricanes", this title references the theory that even a wing's flap can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world. And that's exactly what this song wants to make us understand, explaining how even a wing's flap, something so simple, can be an epochal paradox. The fragility of man is put to the test in this song, another single from the album. Note the piano that accompanies the central part of this song, representing the butterfly flying and notice how the ending is instead lively, representing the frightening force of a hurricane.

"The Small Print" is a small pill that is quickly consumed. It gives us a little joy when listening to it, we can't explain why, but it excites us.

Listening to this album, we realize we have almost reached the end just by listening to this song, the third to last precisely "Endlessly" makes us feel a sense of dismay because we finally realize that what we are listening to is an album designed to make us reflect. A historic album.

"Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist" is a song that brings positivity from the first listen, very easy to listen to and relaxing. We are still in the style of the album, only here the tendency is to make everything more cheerful. Joyful.

The final song, "Ruled By Secrecy" is very pessimistic, in my opinion; you can perhaps feel the true soul of the album coming to life, as only the Muse can do, in a song they can summarize everything we have felt, making it forever fixed in our minds, making it immortal. The part with the piano, seems to accompany us to the exit from this fantastic world, perfect, and infinite that is Absolution.

I believe, and I hope, I managed to explain what this wonderful album has caused in me since the first listen. I hope you have the chance, someday, to listen to it, and to realize what I wanted to make you understand.