Muse are a band that deal in extremes.
If you were still absorbing the sparkling ambition of 1999's Showbiz and the grandeur of 2001's Origin of Symmetry, the Teignmouth trio weren't sitting about waiting for you to catch up.
Where they'd experimented with a church organ and animal bones on Origin…., the band was keen to stretch themselves further into new production techniques on Absolution, recording guitar parts outdoors, drums in a swimming pool and incorporating a variety of found sounds from items discovered around their Irish recording studio.
They'd found a kindred spirit in US producer Rich Costey to help them realise the full scope of their sound.
“He's worked with loads of experimental artists like The Mars Volta, he’s also mixed a couple of Rage Against The Machine albums," Matt Bellamy told Lissie Turner on triple j in 2003.
"But one of the reasons why [we] picked to work with him is because he worked with Philip Glass. He did a double album by him called The Civil Wars…. which is a massive epic kind of symphonic thing.”
“He taught us a lot about how to record strings and how to make those sounds work with a rock band.”
After the disappointment of Origin of Symmetry’s stalled American release, Absolution absolutely feels like a band bolting out of the gate with an exhilarating sense of urgency and desperation licking at their heels.
It became Muse’s first album to top the UK Charts. The world tour set a record for most guitars smashed on a tour, Bellamy laying waste to 140 guitars and provided a peak live highlight for the band when they headlined Glastonbury in 2004.
And in Australia, they achieved their highest placings to date in the Hottest 100 of that year with ‘Hysteria’ (#69), ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ (#42) and ‘Time is Running Out’ (#31).
Delve into the finest records of our time on Double J's Classic Albums. Listen to it here on the ABC listen app.
