Muse(ic)

Tickets.

I love tickets. Tickets to movies. Tickets to broadway shows. Tickets to concerts. (We aren't talking the traffic/parking violation type here, people! I don't get those and I don't want them!).

My latest tickets are of the musical concert type. I decided to splurge a little on myself for my birthday and I bought tickets to see Muse in concert at Arco Arena on September 28. That is so, so far away. But it does give me the opportunity to go from a casual fan of Muse to a hardcore, educated, rabid Muse fangirl by the time summer ends.

I started off by picking up a copy of Black Holes and Revelations by Muse (I really actually went to the record store hoping to pick up a copy of The Resistance, but since Dimple is mostly used CDs, there were no copies on hand). I am extemely pleased that I started with this album, however, because it's so many wonderful things that I'm going to have to blog at least another couple paragraphs to explain it all to you!

First off, I'd like to just say that I'm mindblown that Muse is such a mainstream band. The best way I could describe their music is that it mashes classical, jazz, electronica, hard-fucking rock and a whole bunch of other stuff into the composition of their album. I could hear distinct influences from Pink Floyd, Queen and Radiohead. Muse is avant-garde. And I think that is why I'm really, really getting into loving them more than just as a casual fan.

While there are some amazing hit singles on this album (Supermassive Black Hole, Starlight, Knights of Cydonia) the album is really best enjoyed as a whole. That's the thing I love about some of these modern British bands - they really put a lot of effort into making an album cohesive. The opening song "Take a Bow" offers a super electronic space-rock type feel to set the tone of the album. Later though, the quieter and more Spanish influenced Hoodoo sets the album story up for the finale song Knights in Cydonia.

I also enjoy the quirkiness of the band as they don't take themselves too seriously and yet they are genius music makers. This is clearly evidenced in the music video for Knights in Cydonia. More mashing of genres here as they set their story in the wild west and bring in unicorns and laser guns at the end. It is funny as shit, but genius all at the same time. Enjoy: