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Muse continue to make unrelenting hardcore art rock; Absolution is a tad cheesy, a bit too grandiose in its ambitions, bursting at the seams with too many ideas, and thus exactly what any Muse fan craves.
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Alternative PressAbsolution's chaotic choruses feel like the triumphant culmination of some earth-shattering undertaking. [Jul 2004, p.146]
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BlenderA daring and triumphant concoction. [#27, p.140]
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The most inventive and exhilarating rock music Britain's producing right now.
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Despite the daunting Radiohead-colored cloud that hangs heavy over Muse, the band pushes the limits of its slick, pre-apocalyptic rock with a self-assured strut.
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A truly elemental opus.
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FilterA massive concept album that is so gluttonously huge-sounding that it makes The Wall sound like a Sebadoh record. [#10, p.94]
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MojoPushes the trio's grandiose delusions onto new levels of interpretative-dancing, mirror-cracking excess. [Oct 2003, p.107]
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Muse have widened the goalposts and re-established what rock is allowed to stand for. Next to Absolution, even something as majestic as Elephant sounds so painfully small.
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'Absolution' is Muse's most accomplished album to date, and kicks their - at the time - excellent debut album 'Showbiz' into the ground.
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Ultimately, the arrangements of more than half the songs are defined by their progressive '70s bombast and pretentiousness.
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Q MagazineFor sheer bravado and imagination it's something that few bands will top this year. [Oct 2003, p.109]
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It's too bad that vocalist Matt Bellamy doesn't bring as much ingenuity to his singing.
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Muse write... the same way Metallica write, i.e. just compiling bits of music then sticking them together, except theyre more impressed with their fragments (though theyre simpler and duller and even more remarkably similar to each other than Metallicas), so they make them go on longer and repeat them more times.
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Like Coldplay on A Rush of Blood to the Head, Muse sound like a band who are at the top of their game. Their confidence carries you through the album's excesses.
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Absolution is an emotional, philosophical, sophisticated, poetic, and beautiful piece of rock music.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 380 out of 415
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Mixed: 14 out of 415
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Negative: 21 out of 415
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Oct 29, 2010
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valenbJun 5, 2006
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Mar 2, 2013