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201 of 209 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
ART ROCK LIVES, June 23, 2002
I heard this album by accident when my 13 year old daughter brought it home, and I was stunned by it. I have to say (with affection) that it's wasted on her, and I'm not sure there are many other teenagers around who will grasp why Muse are so important. In fact you probably have to be a 40-something like me to fully appreciate who their influences have been and what the young band has done with them.The trouble with Muse is that they make the creation of superb art rock look so easy that most listeners will take it for granted. Unless you've been around a few years and listened to a few other bands' attempts to create this sort of music, then you may fail to appreciate the unique mix of creative talent, inspiration, sheer hard work, and encyclopaedic knowledge of rock history that must have gone into this project. Sadly, the only influence most reviewers on this site have spotted has been Radiohead. That's fair enough up to a point. Matt Bellamy sounds a bit like Thom Yorke on some songs, and Muse owe Radiohead an even more important debt: It's only because Radiohead carved out a mass market for this kind of art-rock back in the late 90's that there is an opening for new bands like Muse now. However, it is unfair to write Muse off as copyists. On the contrary, they have in some respects surpassed Radiohead at their best, matching the sonic ambition of Radiohead's later work without sacrificing the melodic sweep and the compelling hooks that made "The Bends" so listenable. What's more, Bellamy's voice is a considerably more flexible and emotionally powerful instrument than Yorke's, and embraces far older and deeper influences going right back to the late '60's. Van der Graaf Generator is the most obvious influence, but there's also a heavy sprinkling of King Crimson, at least a nod to middle-period U2, a hint of Japan and others if you listen for them. It's all very British, but encyclopaedic for all that. The key structural difference between Muse and that first wave of prog bands is a welcome one: Muse have learned to say in a four-minute song what some of the seventies prog-rockers needed a 20 minute mini-concerto for. They have some way to go before they outgun the older bands for sheer musical virtuosity, but even that is no bad thing. At least this never pretends to be anything but rock - a boundary that some of the old prog bands came dangerously close to crossing - and they have all the time and talent in the world to refine their art. So what will you hear? Among a wealth of styles, you'll get delicate baroque-style keyboard arpeggios, some thundering ostinato bass lines, crunching splintery guitar, rock solid percussion, and possibly the most awesome, spine-tingling rock vocalising you've ever heard. Ultimately, it must be said, the band has so far broken little new ground. They seem to have been concentrating so far on drawing their influences together and weaving them into whole cloth for the new decade. But they are still amazingly young for this sort of mature work, and the intelligence and awesome technique they have brought to the task promises to propel them to the front rank.
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Before they were big, December 26, 2004
While British rock band Muse are big in the UK, the US is only just starting to get acquainted with these original, entrancing musicians. And their second album, "Origin of Symmetry," they accomplish the almost impossible -- every song is epic and thrilling.
The first two songs open with delicate rippling piano intros that suddenly blossom into rock riffs. Feedback kicks off into sizzling basslines and riffs in "Plug In Baby" and "Citizen Erased," while wind chimes and an acoustic melody are at the heart of "Screenager." "Hyper Music" is the only dud. It's a discordant clatter that becomes a discordant rock song -- nuff zed.
But as good as most of the album is, Muse save the best for absolute last. The penultimate song "Feeling Good" is perhaps the best -- fuzzy chopsticks start the song, followed by a stretch of epic rock and soaring vocals. The finale is no less entrancing, a slowly stately wave of sound that slowly transitions into an equally rich rock song.
Americans really got to know Muse through their latest album, "Absolution." But it's not the only album they have done, nor is it the best. "Origin of Symmetry" may well take that honor, or at least tie with their debut "Showbiz." Relatively few people know about these earlier albums, or about the rich apocalyptic quality of Muse at their best.
Muse is definitely a band for Radiohead fans -- it has the same rich spaciness and art-rock quality, but it's more grounded and gritty. The most entrancing instrumentation is done on piano -- it can be delicate, dark, fuzzy, or outright epic. The piano is accompanied by smashing percussion, sinuous riffs and basslines, and sweeps of spellbinding electronics.
Matt Bellamy puts his good vocals to use in every song, and he's as versatile as his piano. Much of the time he opts for the smooth, low sound. But he also gets to howl, and occasionally sounds like he's been huffing helium. And the songwriting is also pretty solid, often focusing on betrayal and a lover who "was so beautiful."
Muse deftly dodged the sophomore slump in "Origin of Symmetry," a soaring rock epic that won't be fast forgotten.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't expect Revelations, January 4, 2007
To preface this review - I have noticed a few comments and reviews, both here and elsewhere, comparing this album to 'Black Holes and Revelations' and suggesting that Origin of Symmetry is boring, repetitive, or merely represents an embryonic version of Muse's current sound. With the greatest of respect, those sentiments reflect a failure to listen to this album with sufficient patience, a perspective on the point in time at which it was released, and a musically open mind. Origin will not hit you with poppy, catchy songs like Revelations (although it has its catchy moments), but it is by far the more consistent album and will reward a serious listener with arguably Muse's best work so far.
Origin allowed Muse, previously a promising band often likened to Radiohead, to fully demonstrate the breathtaking scope of their sound and ambition. Unlike the relatively dour and understated work of many of their contemporaries, Muse chose to mix the grandeur of classical music, metal, prog rock, and 'alternative' rock to create a massive, grandiose soundscape like no other. Several of the tracks on this album include piano passages from Rachmaninoff; throughout one also encounters huge orchestral-type arrangements, spectacular organ, light-and-dark contrast of the kind not heard since the heyday of the Smashing Pumpkins, and some truly awesome falsetto singing.
Ultimately though, this band is about intelligent guitar driven rock, and I doubt that there is a better current exponent of incendiary yet scientifically precise guitar playing than Matt Bellamy. The songs on Origin provide ample scope for Bellamy's virtuosity, from riff-driven tracks like "Plug In Baby" to the massive stadium sound of "Citizen Erased" and the spanish-tinged guitar of "Darkshines"... and all of these are overshadowed by the use of the guitar as a hybrid classical-rock weapon of mass destruction on tracks such as "Microcuts" and "New Born". Combined with an aggressive rythm section and Bellamy's razor-sharp voice, it's hard to remember that this band is a three piece in the face of the epic wall of sound it produces.
A brief comment on the content of the songs - although there are occasional deviations (for instance, the strange choice to cover "Feeling Good"), there is a definite dystopian-science fiction feel to much of Origin, although it is not a concept album per se. Although musically different, thematically it is somewhat similar to At the Drive In's 'Relationship of Command', with tales of space travel, war, and totalitarianism. Bellamy's penchant for this kind of imagery would become more obvious on subsequent albums, but here it provides a dark, intriguing backdrop.
So. If you are looking for pop songs in the vein of Revelations' "Starlight" and "Supermassive Black Hole" you may not enjoy this album. If, however, you are interested in hearing possibly the best modern prog-rock album in existence, or what Radiohead might sound like if they put away their electronic equipment and picked up guitars again, buy this album - now. A great musical experience beckons.
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