Megalomania (Muse) (LP 3318 - 3326)

Muse  Origin Of Symmetry (CD, Taste Media, 2001) ***  

Muse  Absolution (CD, Taste Media, 2003) ****  

Muse  Black Holes And Revelations  (CD, Warner Bros. Records, 2006) ***** 

Muse  HAARP Live from Wembley Stadium 16 & 17 June '07 (CD/DVD, A&E Records, 2008) ****   

Muse  The Resistance (CD, Warner Bros. Records, 2009) ****   

Muse  The 2nd Law (CD, Warner Bros. Records, 2012) ***   

Muse  Live at Rome Olympic Stadium (CD/DVD, Warner Bros. Records, 2013) ***   

Muse  Drones (CD/DVD, Warner Bros. Records, 2015) **   

Muse  Simulation Theory (Vinyl, Warner Bros. Records, 2018) ***   

Genre: Prog rock

Places I remember: Fives, HMV, JB Hi Fi.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Knights of Cydonia, Starlight (Black Holes and Revelations) 

Gear costume:  Uprising (The Resistance)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: I started with Black Holes And Revelations. I think it was a sampler attached to Uncut magazine, which included Starlight, that tipped me off. Then I saw the album cover. The cover image hooked me completely and clued me in to the prog rock vibe of Muse. I then back tracked to get albums number 2 and 3 (I still don't have either their debut or the latest album).

Origin Of Symmetry sets the Muse stall out well - three blokes making a bass heavy, guitar and electronic led assault on your senses - kind of a Prog version of Motorhead. Actually, come to think of it - a sober Hawkwind (if that's possible) are probably a better comparison, but with falsetto vocals. Great riff rock, and bonkers most of the time.

Their third album Absolution, was the CD I was playing in the car on the day of my dad's funeral. Somehow it formed the perfect soundtrack for a very emotional day. Stockholm Syndrome is a heavier song than they'd done previously and pointed the way to Black Holes And Revelations. It's Sing For Absolution that sums up my emotions on that day and it's a great song to boot. The album as a whole has the theme of things coming to an end.

Black Holes And Revelations is the one! Everything about this album is brilliant - the cover, Matthew Bellamy's vocals, the big BIG songs, the concept, and the execution. Eleven superb songs. 

The live at Wembley album is called HAARP (stands for High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program - not sure what happened to the pesky F) and is a great summation of the band's live skills. They do come across as two distinct entities - live and studio Muse. The Black Holes and Revelations songs make for a brilliant set list. This album comes with a DVD and that is mightily impressive in its own right.

Their next studio album was The Resistance from 2009. The influence of glam bands and Queen came through on this one, as well as prog rock influences, as it includes a three-part, 13-minute long symphony piece, Exogenesis.

Yes, its titanic guitar solos, symphonic suites, and multi-layered melodies are fully over-the-top but that's the point! This is prog rock on a grand scale and they carry it off when it would be easy to fall on their three faces. I applaud their ambition. 

It's a different record to Black Holes and Revelations - not as catchy maybe (except for Uprising) but a really confident and bold leap in a different direction.

The 2nd Law was their sixth studio album. It's a concept album about a deteriorating planet that its inhabitants can no longer live on. Not so far from the truth really. The music is more synth dominated than before, which changes things up a bit, but isn't really my preference. I prefer the guitar rifferama that Bellamy can produce.

The second live CD/DVD combination in my collection is their Live at Rome Olympic Stadium package. I prefer the set list from the Wembley gig. The standouts for me are still the tracks from Black Holes And Revelations.

Drones is their weakest album. It just has weaker songs and it doesn't move the band forward - whereas every previous studio album has done just that - taken a fresh approach. Drones is another concept album following a soldier's abandonment, indoctrination as a human drone, and eventual defection. No, I don't get it either. 

Better by far is the final album on my list and their only album that I have on vinyl - bought from HMV in Oxford Street before it closed down.

If Matt Bellamy wanted to be a combo of Freddie Mercury and Brian May in the same body before it, Simulation Theory shows that he also now wants to be a two headed beast - one Freddie, the other Prince.

It's a lighter, more fun approach this time with some different sounds as they channel eighties synth-pop culture (just check out the cover). I think the AllMusic reviewer gets it spot on: '[It's] the most compulsively listenable and immediate Muse album since 2006's Black Holes & Revelations. Fully embracing their sci-fi tendencies, the trio dip into the nostalgic '80s, tapping the aesthetics of Tron, Blade Runner, and composer John Carpenter'. 

Where do they all belong? I've probably got enough Muse material. Black Holes And Revelations remains my go to.