Black Holes & Revelations

Posted on July 14, 2006    Posted by John Scalzi

So, for the last couple of days, I’ve been wallowing in Black Holes & Revelations, the new album from Muse, who are apparently stupid huge in the UK, but not so much here. I bought their first album, Showbiz, when it come out in (uh… I think) 1999, but then they fell off my radar. Well, now they’re back on it. BH&R is ridiculously overblown; these guys give The Darkness a run for the crown of Most Histrionic Band Since Queen. That said, this album yet manages a sort of spacey grandeur (“grandeur” not being something The Darkness ever really managed), and one track (“Starlight”) is probably my favorite of the year so far.

And as it happens AOL is streaming the entire album, so you can check it out for yourself. It’s all one stream, so you’ll be lacking the song titles, but if you’re interested, “Starlight” is track two (it comes in about four minutes and 30 seconds in). I also enjoy the fourth track “The Map of the Problematique” to an insensible degree (it comes up about 12 and a half minutes in). It’s all fun, in an unholy “What if Freddy Mercury mated with Martin Gore while Dave Gilmour watched, and their children knew of the world only what they read in Interzone” sort of way. Enjoy.