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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Absolution
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 134 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Warner Brothers
Release Date: 23 March 2004
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Alternative, Rock
Summary
A commercial and critical success in the UK upon its release in the fall of 2003, 'Absolution' marks the third album for the English rockers (who frequently draw comparisons to Radiohead--but then again, who doesn't?). It also marks their first time working with producer Rich Costey.
Also By This Artist: Black Holes & Revelations The Resistance
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Alternative Press
Absolution's chaotic choruses feel like the triumphant culmination of some earth-shattering undertaking. [Jul 2004, p.146]
Filter
A massive concept album that is so gluttonously huge-sounding that it makes The Wall sound like a Sebadoh record. [#10, p.94]
Dot Music
The most inventive and exhilarating rock music Britain's producing right now.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
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.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
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.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
For sheer bravado and imagination it's something that few bands will top this year. [Oct 2003, p.109]
Playlouder
'Absolution' is Muse's most accomplished album to date, and kicks their - at the time - excellent debut album 'Showbiz' into the ground.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
Absolution is an emotional, philosophical, sophisticated, poetic, and beautiful piece of rock music.
Read Full Review >Drawer B
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.
Read Full Review >Blender
A daring and triumphant concoction. [#27, p.140]
All Music Guide
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.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
It's too bad that vocalist Matt Bellamy doesn't bring as much ingenuity to his singing.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
Ultimately, the arrangements of more than half the songs are defined by their progressive '70s bombast and pretentiousness.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Pushes the trio's grandiose delusions onto new levels of interpretative-dancing, mirror-cracking excess. [Oct 2003, p.107]
Stylus Magazine
Muse write... the same way Metallica write, i.e. just compiling bits of ‘music’ then sticking them together, except they’re more impressed with their fragments (though they’re simpler and duller and even more remarkably similar to each other than Metallica’s), so they make them go on longer and repeat them more times.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 134 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
conorz xzxz gave it a10:
Great album, they just haven't managed to recreate the awesomeness, though the resistance was a fair attempt. I wish more modern albums were like this.
Aaron J gave it a10:
Rock opera in the truest sense -- rife with such deep emotions that no real, sane person could ever sustain them, but that are perfect for an art masterpiece.
Timi M gave it a10:
One of the best Album all Time! Every Song of the Album is a masterpiece!
cms gave it a10:
If you gave this album below a 6 or 7, I hope to god I'm never at a party where you have control of the music. It doesn't have to be your thing, but a 3??? GTFOH, this is some of the best music in our generation.
Karolina gave it a10:
The second best album they ever made.
Aaron M gave it a10:
A great album.
Tom H gave it a10:
One of the best albums in history.
