|
New & Current Releases
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search
Upcoming Release Calendar
All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
Best Of 2003
Best Of 2002
Best Of 2001
Best Of 2000
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Music In Our Forums
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
|
Black Holes & Revelations
by Muse
The stadium-sized English trio returns with a follow-up to its 2004 hit 'Absolution,' again produced by Rich Costey.
| LABEL: |
Warner Bros |
| RELEASE DATE: |
11 July 2006 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Alternative, Rock |
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...
100
Observer Music Monthly
Entertaining and rabble-rousing, daft and deadly serious, it's a fantastic record, with almost limitless appeal.
100
E! Online
Head-smashing songs like "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Invincible" all point to an album that strives to be nothing less than epic. It succeeds.
100
Q Magazine
A work of dazzling scope and grandeur... It is impossible to imagine any other band making music quite like this. [Aug 2006, p.106]
100
Alternative Press
Revelations is Muse's best work yet primarily because of the fluid balance it keeps between excess and restraint. [Aug 2006, p.220]
90
All Music Guide
Muse have really done it this time.
90
musicOMH.com
A monstrously grandiose, ridiculously gargantuan and stunningly inventive work from start to end.
90
New Musical Express
Muse have made a ridiculous, overblown, ambitious and utterly brilliant album, with more thrills than their previous three put together.
90
Drowned In Sound
The work of three individuals arriving at the peak of their powers, it’s likely to be the band’s OK Computer, their Music For The Jilted Generation, their Dark Side Of The Moon – the record that everything they produce subsequently is immediately unfairly rated against, ‘til time’s own sands sit still.
84
ShakingThrough.net
In terms of sheer Freddie Mercury bravado and guitar-shredding, genre-jumping prog-rock pomposity, this stirring record is indeed (forgive me) something of a revelation.
83
Entertainment Weekly
Corny and bombastic, their latest is also ambitious, impeccably built, and apt to induce fits of uncontrolled fist pumping. [14 Jul 2006, p.81]
80
The Guardian
It shouldn't work, but Bellamy's mania is so convincingly realised that even the most avowed Muse refusenik may have to finally concede defeat.
80
Paste Magazine
A career milestone and one of the year's strongest rock albums. [Sep 2006, p.73]
80
Tiny Mix Tapes
Black Holes and Revelations is probably the least restrained album of 2006, which for some is a blessing, for others a pretentious annoyance. It is, however, a focused album.
80
Blender
Like a question 1970s double disc compacted into 45 brutally efficient minutes, it has the momentum of a meteor. [Aug 2006, p.108]
80
Uncut
Consolidates and amplifies everything they've done up to now. [Aug 2006, p.110]
75
Stylus Magazine
That’s not to say the album is a disappointment (it isn’t) or not great (it is, mostly), but after hitting their creative and commercial peak with Absolution and its subsequent breakthrough stateside, Black Holes and Revelations clearly reveals itself to be a transition record.
75
Prefix Magazine
Muse is nothing if not distinctive, and Black Holes and Revelations is very much distinctively Muse: fantastic at points and ridiculous at others, without much in between.
75
Los Angeles Times
Overall, "Black Holes and Revelations" offers a refreshing revamp, but the jarring contrast between its new and vintage sounds comes off as slightly half-baked. [9 Jul 2006]
70
Playlouder
Muse's magnificent powerhouse that is new album 'Black Holes And Revelations' rectifies - almost - everything that once was wrong.
70
Under The Radar
Black Holes and Revelations isn’t a perfect record but it’s a worthy addition to an already stellar catalog. [#14]
70
PopMatters
Muse impresses, and continues to impress on Black Holes, not only because they have the Romantic classical harmony-fueled huge stadium sound down pat, but in the details that show a band mature and talented.
70
Rolling Stone
If you manage to suspend your disbelief a little, Black Holes and Revelations will push your pleasure buttons.
60
Mojo
What this record lacks is a couple of the screamalong anthems at which Muse have become renowned. [Aug 2006, p.88]
60
Slant Magazine
The album is a black hole of pomp and nothingness, a perfect document of the times. So, to fully enjoy it, it's best to turn your brain off and let yourself get sucked in.
60
Dot Music
This is the first Muse album to sound - brace yourself, outrageous melodrama fans - ordinary.
50
Billboard
Though the album grows stronger as it lurches on, the trio's pursuit of bombast leaves the killer melodies lost in outer space.
42
Pitchfork
This is the band's most autopiloted effort yet, a hacked-up last-gen rehash of said space jams, only now with greater emphasis on glitz and glam. Somehow Muse, always loveably lame, have managed to take a turn for the lamer.
40
cokemachineglow
Unfortunately, it seems the group is more interested in refining, rather than re-defining, their craft, whose torpid mechanics bear no mystery, no guts behind all that glamour.
40
NOW Magazine
Impressive song construction ruined by heart-wrenching dramatics.
40
Spin
Muse used to sound like a Radiohead tribute band; now they sound like a Muse knockoff. [Aug 2006, p.81]
40
Village Voice
Takes rock to Seussian levels of ridiculousness.
33
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Give Muse credit for remaking itself over the years into a full-blown theatrical experience, and not just another echoing rock band. But that experience is, frankly, kind of shitty.
The average user rating for this album is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 202 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Read more user comments...
Discuss this album in our forums |
|
