Muse were at a pivotal moment with their third album Absolution. While their first two albums Showbiz and Origin Of Symmetry had fared well in Europe, their American label Maverick decided to drop them over artistic differences. Yet they were on the cusp of greater things. With Absolution, the British rockers imbued their sound with a larger-than-life quality, siphoning in elements like classical and metal into the mix. The former genre had played into some of their earlier songs but became stronger here.
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They gave new meaning to the term power trio, especially with the third single “Hysteria” which served up pummeling bass from Chris Wolstenholme which readers of Music Radar ranked as the greatest bass line ever. The album as a whole had a fuller, punchier production courtesy of Rich Costey and some additional work by John Cornfield and Paul Reeve. It began the group’s new association with Warner Bros. Records proper; Maverick was a subsidiary of the corporation.
Anxiety Exemplified
The Absolution writing and recording sessions were different than previous ones as Muse had more time to work on the new material, but they also felt some anxiety after Maverick dropped them. In fact, the label did not release Origin Of Symmetry in the U.S. until 2005, four years after its original release. But all of this tumultuousness flowed into the recordings. The music was more bombastic and electrified, and the songs “Blackout” and “Butterflies and Hurricanes” featured strings.
The album’s heaviest track, the agitated “Hysteria,” chronicled an obsession with someone or something and letting that consume one’s soul.
It’s bugging me
Grating me
And twisting me around
Yeah, I’m endlessly
Caving in
And turning inside out
‘Cause I want it now
I want it now
Give me your heart and your soul
And I’m breaking out
I’m breaking out
Last chance to lose control
Interestingly enough, the video for “Hysteria” had two versions. In the European version, a man isolated himself within a trashed hotel room, replaying video of a sexual encounter he had with a prostitute along with another video he shot of her meeting other clients. It was clear he was possessive and violent towards her, and that he became transfixed by her image. The clip actually recalled both the hotel trashing scene in Pink Floyd The Wall and the sexual assault and murder captured via VR in Katheryn Bigelow’s Strange Days. It made a statement about how personal media creation and consumption can warp obsessions into something deranged and unhealthy.
The American video version of the song was more benign, featuring a studio band playing in front of a surreal montage of projected images. It was a dynamic performance but less compelling than the European clip, which was not really controversial. (No sex, please, we’re Americans.)
Existential Musings
During an interview at Pinkpop 2004, frontman and lyricist Matthew Bellamy was asked about “Thoughts of a Dying Atheist,” the angst-ridden closing track on Absolution, and how spirituality or religion was explored a lot in his music. His answer related to a larger picture of the album and Muse’s music.
“Definitely,” Bellamy concurred of the assessment. “I think making songs for me has been exploring unanswered questions in my own life. Not just about big things like religion, but very small things as well like the problems you’ve had in relationships or with your friends or with your parents. Or things on a much grander scale, like religion or whatever it might be. Making songs, for me, is all about trying to find the answer to those questions, if possible, but I never do find the answer. I think the song is always the expression of the question and not the answer. I think a lot of songwriters do songs which are based around the answers, like trying to give some kind of moral message, but I try to avoid that and I try to just express the question and not the conclusion.”
A Strong Step Forward
Absolution’s second single “Time Is Running Out,” with a video inspired by the film Dr. Strangelove (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), hit No. 8 in the UK, and “Hysteria” then landed at No. 17. In America, the band has only had three songs break the Hot 100, with “Uprising” hitting the highest mark at No. 37, but they have had more success with radio and video play. Both “Time Is Running Out” and “Hysteria” from Absolution hit No. 9 on the Alternative Airplay chart, and the videos got a lot of play on channels like Fuse and MTV2.
“Hysteria” is an amazingly aggressive and cathartic track that is reportedly difficult for Wolstenholme to play live. On numerous bass forums across the internet, many musicians have noted how challenging it is to play and match the tone and intensity. It’s certainly one of the most memorable bass lines of the modern rock era, and according to Setlist.fm, the song is the third most played in their concert history.
It’s one of Muse’s most potent tracks.
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Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartRadio
