Muse – Showbiz - Review of UK Prog Hard Rock Band
Review of the Debut Album from Devon’s Most Famous Musical Trio
May 21, 2009
When Muse released this debut album back in 1999 the world and his dog mistook them for another one of those Radiohead tribute bands that were making the rounds back then. However, the only Radiohead comparison that can be made is that like them Muse got off on the wrong foot by coming out angst ridden and all guitars blazing, before realising there might be something in this experimental alternative music lark.
Actually that’s an unfair analogy as Showbiz, although obviously flawed, isn’t as bad as Pablo Honey and the Muse/Radiohead stuff is often a crutch used by critics who have seemingly nothing else to say. Showbiz does contain the flashes of brilliance that would cement the band’s legacy as being one of the most creative British bands of the 21st century so far.
Showbiz is the Starting Point for Muse
While there are some great songs on Showbiz the Muse lads were still developing the formula for their grandiose epics, so parts of the album come across as underdeveloped or missing a vital element that could have made it a better starting point.
That’s not saying there aren’t any big moments on Showbiz. ‘Sunburn’ is easily the best track to ever open a Muse album; the solemn piano verses are calm and tranquil but soon unleash the typical Matt Bellamy guitar lunacy after the second chorus.
Also the title track is without a doubt the best five minutes the band has ever committed to tape, slightly ahead of Origin of Symmetry’s ‘Citizen Erased’. It’s a sprawling epic of Dom Howard’s frantic drum beats, a driving bass line and Bellamy’s deafening guitar solos that sets the bar high for modern progressive rock.
Good Riffs but also some Dire Songs
Early single ‘Muscle Museum’ and the album closer ‘Hate This And I’ll Love You’ are a sign of things to come for Muse and are more in line with the textured and ambitious work off their next album. Although ‘Cave’ begins poorly it soon opens up into something approaching brilliant. Bellamy also shows of his acrobatic vocal skills on the bluesy ‘Falling Down’ and as ever is stuck in falsetto mode throughout.
As Showbiz was plodding long nicely, despite a few bumps, things go horribly off track after the acoustic beauty of ‘Unintended’. ‘Uno’ kicks off with a cracking riff but it’s let down by weak and frankly dull verses, ‘Escape’ fails as the emotionally charged Jeff Buckley tune it so desperately wants to be and the less said about the abysmal ‘Overdue’ the better. On the whole the good tracks do outnumber the bad, but only just.
Muse Before the Synthesisers took over
Looking back it’s hard to believe that this is the same band that unleashed the electro-pop madness that hung over the majority of the rather overrated Black Holes and Revelations. Perhaps that’s a sign that Muse need stop messing around with the synthesisers and cheesy clap-along songs but instead inject some of the fire and energy that made them one of the most exciting bands in Britain around the time of 2001’s Origin of Symmetry.
Who knows, they might just surprise people even more.
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