1001 Albums Summary

9/10. Amazing album, one weaker track (You Make It Easy) lets it down a bit.

Buena Vista Social Club on speed. Even if mambo isn't son. Try to sit still.

Not even their best. Still phenomenal.

As per usual with Muse, I know it's actually quite good. But I can't take an album of them. It's too much. (This from a massive Wagner fan!) Loudness wars going on within the same track. And always those scales going up and down! Muse do bombast quite well at times. But only Queen ever made bombast effortless and fun. I saw Muse live once at the Rock Werchter festival and remember saying to my friends that they sounded like magma with bowel problems. I know that is perceived as A Good Thing in some parts, but I can't take 50 minutes of it. Case in point is Invisible, which is one of many that go from 'ooh, that sounds nice' to 'cor, is it over yet' faster than you can say 'again'. Stars (I'm in rather a good mood) are a half each for the excellent Starlight, the rocking Exo-Politics (but imagine how good it would have been in Queen's hands!), the surprising City Of Delusion and Soldier's Poem, in which Matt Whatsisname proves he can sing, like he once did in the deathless Unintended. Assassin isn't bad but somehow seems to try to hard. Which I guess sums up how I feel about Muse in general.

What a blast! I'd never heard it and at times it's close to as far as I can go with jazz. But it's so thrilling, even in those more avant garde bits. The way Track B - Duet Solo Dancers starts of slow and intimate, then builds up into a frantic rhythm, then seems to fall apart before picking up again into the ending in which you can almost visualise the duo of dancers, is worth the price of the album. But that also goes for the piano and somehow oriental-sounding flourishes in the 'Group Dance' track that follows, and for many more moments here. I don't want to overdo it on the five star ratings, but with the selection of outstanding albums we're getting and my broad tastes, maybe it's unavoidable. Five it is. Going on my wish list, this one!

One of my favourite albums ever. Flawless. Give it five stars and put it on again. And again.

Proof that punk, substance and skill weren't necessarily mutually exclusive. Great stuff. Peaches will always remind me of Sportweekend, Flemish television's Sunday sports show. Irrepressible. Just one of a good number of more than decent tracks here. Jean-Jaques Burnel's basslines are brilliant throughout.