Sometimes to go forwards, you take two steps backwards to re-discover what made you successful. This is exactly what Muse have done with their latest album, Absolution XX, which is a 20th anniversary remix of their 2003 album, ‘Absolution’.
The album features the same track listings as its original album, with the Japanese bonus track, titled ‘Fury’ added as a base track, something that I’m very happy about, as it is an amazing song and one that us UK listeners missed out on, during the album’s original release on the 15th September 2003.
Not only this, but all the songs have been remastered using modern technology and some songs have been changed, with some songs appearing as extras with demos, live performances and stripped audio, songs like ‘Apocalypse Please’, ‘Butterflies and Hurricanes’ with ‘Ruled By Secrecy’ are vocals and keyboard only, adding an extra layer of emotion to each song, something that us Muse fans have missed in their most recent albums.
With that, I think it’s time to see how Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dom Howard’s latest piece racks up.
As mentioned previously, the Absolution XX remix is proof of Muse’s maturation as a band, going from plain, heavy rock as seen in their debut and sophomore albums, ‘Showbiz’ and ‘Origin of Symmetry’ respectively, to more piano and acoustic elements in the original release of ‘Absolution’ and ‘Black Holes and Revelations’, to more electronic rock in both ‘The 2nd Law’ and ‘Simulation Theory’, with ‘Drones’ falling back on Muse’s original style of heavy rock, implementing some softer rock, as also seen in ‘Will of the People’.
However, this isn’t the first remix album that Muse released, as in 2021, they released ‘Origin of Symmetry XX’, in which all songs were given a fresh sound, and overall sounding a lot cleaner and more-in-depth compared to the originals, a concept which Muse have applied to ‘Absolution XX’.
From ‘Apocalypse Please’ to ‘Hysteria’ and ‘Blackout’ and ‘Fury’, every song has been refreshed, with demos from the early 2000s and live performances of select songs from the same period. These performances haven’t been refreshed in the same way as what the studio tracks have, but that isn’t a loss, as it demonstrates the vocal talents of Bellamy perfectly, as it is a common belief among Muse fans, dubbed “Musers”, that Matt does in fact sound better live than he does in studio recordings. This is proven, in my opinion, in the 2004 performance of ‘Thoughts of a Dying Atheist’ at the Wiltern Theatre, Canada. This song portrays emotions surrounding Bellamy’s fear of death as an Atheist, who doesn’t believe in Heaven or Hell, hearing people around him who passed in his lifetime. The live performance of this really emphasising these points, with lyrics full of emotion and power. Another example being the 2004 Earl’s Court performance of ‘Hysteria’, where Wolstenholme is incredible, playing possibly the hardest bassline to perfection, which backed up with incredibly powerful vocals, is a cut above the studio performance.
However, with all albums, it isn’t all swings and roundabouts, as there are some great songs on the regular album that haven’t been shown as much love. One stand out example is the aforementioned Japanese bonus track ‘Fury’, which has been released on this album in its original form, it didn’t have a live version released, which I don’t believe is fair to the track, as the many live performances found online would have been great to include, but it is understandable to give ‘Fury’ a miss, as the album is well above average in terms of track numbers, with 26 in total.
Another song in a similar situation is the song that beat ‘Fury’ to the original release, ‘The Small Print’, which was voted by Wolstenholme and Howard to feature as a worldwide release, against Bellamy’s wishes to have ‘Fury’ on the album. To think that ‘The Small Print’ was the more popular song among the trio, and it didn’t get a demo or a live performance released, almost suggests that the song was either overlooked or completely ignored, instead favouring an instrumental demo of ‘Falling Away With You’, which is titled by many as one of ‘Absolution’s weakest tracks, which while it is full of emotion and wishes, I do agree with.
On another plus, however, the mix between acoustic songs, such as ‘Sing for Absolution’, ‘Ruled By Secrecy’ and Blackout featuring as multiple versions on the album, and the heavier tracks, like ‘Hysteria’ and ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ as different versions provides an emotional rollercoaster for the listener, as some songs are polar opposites in terms of composition, yet they all fit perfectly within the album’s theme of dystopia, something that the band lives and breathes when composing albums.
In my opinion, this album is worth a listen for the average listener, as it provides a perfect introduction to Muse, and shows how a small band from Devon made huge waves, tsunamis even, in the music world by releasing an almost perfectly remastered album, 20 years after the original release.
