Black Holes and Revelations

This is the album that brought Muse into the masses. Believe the hype, "Black Holes and Revelations" is extraordinary from start to finish. "Take A Bow" is a political and angry juggernaut. "Starlight" is simply romantic. Contains a killer keyboard riff and flawless vocals courtesy of Matthew Bellamy. That falsetto of his STELLAR. "Supermassive Black Hole" is a thumping, sexy dance track with Prince-esque vocals. Easily a fan favorite. "Map of the Problematique" is a haunting track with dark synths. Reminds me of a Depeche Mode track. The short but sweet, "Soldier's Poem" and "Invincible" are beautiful and heartfelt ballads. Clearly shows a different side to the band. The great thing about this album is the variety. You get a little bit of everything: rock, pop, alternative, dance, electronica, etc. The tempo picks up again on "Assassin" (love those blistering guitars and chord changes) and "Exo-Politics" which my pick for BEST track. I could listen to that song 10 times in a row. "Exo-Politics" has this addicting chorus you can't get out of your head. "City of Delusion" is absolute perfection, and "Hoodoo" is another slower track but has a loud and fiery bridge that will blow you away. The final track, "Knights of Cydonia" was obviously influenced by Queen with the vocal harmonies and awesome guitar solo towards the end. Muse play this song a lot in concert. Amazing and powerful song. "Black Holes and Revelations" is the right place to start if you are at all interested in hearing this incredible band. Not one weak song in the bunch. No filler. I highly recommend it. Enjoy!

Muse never gets old. Always a great time listening to this album!

MUSE is one of the best bands of all time. Period. Being a prog rock and rock fan of music, for me they are up there with Genesis (old Genesis), Rush and the Beatles. The genius of Matt Bellamy as a song writer, gifted pianist and guitarist continues to amaze me. Obviously, I own a lot of MUSE music. Prior to purchasing this CD/DVD combo I was already obsessed with BHAR and already owned 2 copies. What an accomplishment this album was for the band! But to include the Absolution concert DVD in with this purchase makes it my best MUSE purchase to date, excluding concert tickets of course. The Absolution DVD is a tough one to acquire if you live in the states like me. But at last I found it and did not hesitate to pay $70 for it. I had seen the Absolution concert on Muse's website (check it out muse.mu....it's bar none the best band website I have ever seen) and I knew I had to find it so I could blast it through the huge speakers in my living room. The version of Muscle Museum on this DVD alone makes the purchase worthwhile. Well done MUSE.

Music over the past few years has gotten really weak, and at this point, Muse is one of the only bands who I look forward to new albums from. I was afraid of what it might contain once I heard Supermassive Black Hole, but thankfully that is the only song of that style on the CD.The CD Starts off where Absolution left off. Where Absolution was about the end of the world, and ends on a sad "let's face it" kind of note, Black Holes and Revelations starts off on a very strong build up that seems to say "let's fight back."I can always live without hearing politics in music, but Muse seems to do it in a much different way than I've heard before. Their music seems to express their points much better than other bands who just seem to scream out cliches like "bring down the government" and mindless things of that sort.Musically, this CD is of the same quality as their previous albums with a nice extra touch of a few new styles. City of delusion, and Hoodoo have strong spanish themes to them, which they pull off wonderfully. Supermassive Black Hole, Map of the Problematique, and even points of Take a Bow have a techno style which also seems to work for the band. A Soldier's Poem shows a soft yet powerful side of Muse with some background harmony that was just waiting to come out of Matt for years. Knights of Cydonia has the feel of a Zelda game until it's fantastically harmonized climax "No one's gonna take me a live."If you liked any of the previous three albums, you will like this one. Just don't go by Supermassive Black Hole as your reference of the CD. That one's just the result of Matt's DJ experience in NY - it gets much better. Grab a copy, this is easily the best album of the year, and it takes chances on top of that. What else can you ask for?

Received item, album itself is in amazing condition, but the sleeve and album cover came a teeny bit ripped and damaged

Along with Absolution, Muse perform amazingly in this cd.

Muse is a band that I find difficult to categorize. They take elements of classic progressive rock and fuse it with modern electronica and alternative rock not unlike their peers Radiohead or more adventurous material from Coldplay. At the same time the band hearken back to older influences, an obvious one being Queen and some of this stuff even reminds me of bands like Rush, Depeche Mode or Prince. Yes the material is that diverse. So what does all this mean? It means Muse is a great band who are creating some of the freshest and adventurous rock music out there today. Having not been exposed to their earlier stuff (aside from the occasional single on the radio), I can't compare this album to prior ones, but "Holes" has certainly made me want to explore the rest of the band's catalogue.

Love this album and finally bought the vinyl for it.