[series] Fifteen for Thirty - Part Five

[saikou]

05. "Black Holes and Revelations" by Muse

I begin to wonder, five albums into this series, why the latter half of the 00's saw me discovering my favorite albums. I was certainly a music lover before then, right? I downloaded scads of music I'd never heard of from various p2p sites just to try it out, borrowed random CD's from friends, feverishly recorded songs off of the radio, sifted meticulously through my parents' old vinyl collection spinning everything I could, etc etc. And then it occurs to me: starting around 2005, the days of the sampling form of musical discovery were mostly over for a good chunk of five or so years. Luckily the tide has turned once again with the easy access of satellite radio, but once Napster and Kazaa died, YouTube began ot get privatized (hello, VEVO. Fuck off, VEVO), and radio was already in its dying gasps, there was very little to be done about discovering new music other than to take your friends' recommendations. To that end, I was left with little choice but to download entire albums. I could no longer go to Kazaa and grab just the tracks I had fallen in love with, leaving me to figure out the rest later.

Surely, there are a lot of bands I discovered in the late 90's and early 00's that merit also-ran status in this list, and I'd like to tip my hat to them after all this is said and done. Still, my days of discovering albums were relegated to my early-to-mid teens (during which I discovered most of the standard building blocks of anyone's music appreciation library - The Beatles, David Bowie, Velvet Underground, bands I don't feel I have enough unique and personal feelings on to include here) and my mid-to-late twenties. I leapt right from classics to contemporary artists, skipping that whole time in between, with a few exceptions which appear on this list.

For the most part though, it's staggering to be compiling all of this and see what an effect the years of 2006-2010 had on me, musically.

Which brings me to Muse.

My journey into full-on rabid stan territory with Muse has been a long one. I started in 2004, as a few of you may know, with songs from "Absolution", which I heard used in a couple of my favorite anime music videos from conventions. I went on to create AMVs to Muse, and Muse inspired me throughout 2004-2006 in my various creative pursuits. The songs were instrumental in the direction of "Stillborn Apocalypse", inspired entire characters for "Challenger" (the character of Spot was based, entirely, on the song "Plug-In Baby"), and helped lay the foundation for other projects along the way. I never cared what Muse looked like or even tapped into the band beyond the music during this time.

Simply, Muse are an inspiring band, musically. These soundscapes don't just sit there and wait to be interpreted, they make things happen in a creative brain. There's a science to this, I'm sure, and if I ever could unlock the code that makes that happen, I would die happy. So, not being a massive fan yet but also having my finger slightly on the pulse of music, I learned through a friend in the Band of Brothers fandom in 2006 that Muse had released their new album, "Black Holes and Revelations".

I listened to it for the very first time, in a fit of excitement, on a drive to my best friend's house. I can actually timeline the songs in order of when I heard them. Due to this memory, I can say that I had the album on shuffle for some reason when I listened to it. I was on North Claire Drive, gaping at the majesty of "Knights of Cydonia". I stopped to fuel up my car on Tyndall Parkway as I listened to "Take a Bow". I arrived at Noel's house and sat in the driveway, unable to move until "Hoodoo" finished playing. I promptly went inside and we flailed about the album together.

"Black Holes and Revelations" is my favorite Muse album not only because of what great music it contains, but because that music very specifically holds so many creative memories for me. A lot of it is tied, unsurprisingly for the time when it was released, to my tenure in the Band of Brothers fandom. Come on, though - it was the perfect album for the source material, and so many songs made it onto so many fanmixes all over the fandom during that year.

However, it also sparked something very interesting in me; it made me revisit one of my first full-length creative projects, "Chemistry of Vision", and begin to dissect it for the first time in four or five years. Now, I've decided since then that CoV and its associated stories are far too problematic to ever salvage, but my goodness the memories and the creative juices. Literally every song on "Black Holes and Revelations" brings up a very specific memory, whether fandom related or writing related. I wrote a run-down, but it seemed painfully self-indulgent after the fact.

I wouldn't discover "Glorious" until I began full-on Muse stan mode in 2010, but it immediately leapfrogged every other Muse song in existence to become my favorite.

Writing this, it occurs to me how awkward it is to write about this album when it's such old news for most of the people on my Friends List who will be reading this. Running in Muse fandom circles, we fall into that trap of trying to find new and interesting things to be excited about, and explaining away songs/albums/everything in familiar terms. "This album is great you know what I mean?" and the like. I want to write in more detail about "Black Holes and Revelations", but it seems almost played out. When I try to go deeper, it seems strangely and awkwardly private (the fandom I was in at the time had a very hurtful falling out, and the best friend and I who shared our Muse love in 2006 have since grown apart). So... I'm left with very little.

I will tell you that when my dad was unconscious in the hospital in Gainesville after his stroke in 2010, I stood next to him and sang "Starlight" and "Invincible" a capella several times. Because I was so scared, but those songs seemed to calm me down immensely. In fact, the guitar solo from "Invincible" has been known to make me cry like a trigger, and I'm not being facetious about that. There is a beauty in this album that is a product of many factors aligning in perfect harmony, by a band at perhaps the peak of their creative energy and freedom.

I could talk about how much I love them and how much I admire them and how much I want to bone them, but when I face the simple fact of what a great album it is - and only what a great album it is - I'm taken back to that innocent time before fandom had such an influence on how I understood and appreciated my favorite band. It's a bittersweet way of putting it, and as grateful as I am for all the people I've met and experiences I've had because of this fandom, I also mourn that special and personal relationship with the music and the music alone.

Just in case you're one of those finding these entries via Twitter, or wandering through without any fandom ties to me, I'd like to give you a small taste of why Muse are My Faves(tm).

This is "Knights of Cydonia". This is Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme, and Dominic Howard. This is Muse.

I don't want to oversaturate with clips, videos, etc. Because I could be here all night, just on one album. I've been too far down the rabbit hole already.

Hint for Part Six: My mom called it "that scary sheep record"

Comments

[vynl.livejournal.com]

I have really specific memories tied to this album too. I used to travel all over the country during the summers when I competed in drum corps. I remember I downloaded the album the day before tour started because it had leaked a few days early. The next day, I took my seat at the back of our tour bus, plugged in my headphones, and curled up into a little ball to listen to the album. It was one of the most peaceful, thrilling, and wholesome moments of my life--and especially then, because 2006 was one hell of a confusing, complicated year for me.

In other words, I know that feel, bro.

I'm loving these music posts you're doing! I've been checking out all of the albums you've listed. I just didn't really have anything semi-worthwhile to say until--go figure--a Muse album entry came along ;)

[ashamedbliss.livejournal.com]

i just kind of... i've chosen absolution over bhar for my countdown (spoiler hurr) because i don't think i could even explain bhar in words.

i mean, soldier's poem. songs don't get much more personal. well... yeah okay but you know.

just.... okay fail comment. but every song holds a memory or an image for me. i don't ever want to lose that.

<33333

[ignitedsoul.livejournal.com]

Starlight is the song I go to when I need to feel happy and it's my favorite song. And Invincible quite literally saved my life at one point. How can Muse be so personal? It's crazy.

Ugh, this album. There really are no words for how brilliant it is, but are there ever any words to describe a Muse album (with the exception of Showbiz)?

[syntheticjesso.livejournal.com]

This was my first Muse album. I was in my Bad Relationship with Jerkface McGee in 2006, and he loved Muse, and always insisted on listening to them in my car. I remember the day this came out, we were doing something and he had me drive to Best Buy so he could buy it, and then insisted on listening to it, and I didn't like it AT ALL. Like, I resented him making me listen to it all the time. He made me watch the DVD, too (I forget which one now, probably Absolution Tour, looking at the wiki for dates? The one where it's dedicated to Dom's dad, or whoever had a heart attack the night of the performance. I think.), even though I was completely uninterested, because it's what HE wanted to watch (a recurring theme in that relationship).

So yeah. I resented Muse. Also Radiohead, because he made me put that on my iPod, but that's beside the point.

One day, though, he was listening to this in my car and something clicked over, and I asked to borrow the CDs. I took them home and ripped them and added them to my iPod and fell in love. There were several bands that he introduced me to, that I ended up not being able to stomach after he dumped me, but Muse stuck with me. And now I'm firmly in the Muse Stan camp, forever and always.

[engel-sehnsucht.livejournal.com]

I love BHAR. I think it's my favourite Muse album, but then I start to think and realise that I can't actually choose a favourite (yeah I'm indecisive) but... idk, there's something special about BHAR that still makes it... stand out? from their other albums.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_eiko_/]

Late comment is late (mainly because I seem to have overlooked this entry when it was posted, how did that happen? D: ), but I just wanted to say that when I read
"I stood next to him and sang "Starlight" and "Invincible" a capella several times. Because I was so scared, but those songs seemed to calm me down immensely", I got this huge lump in my throat.
I've never been in a situation like this, but I could just imagine you sitting there, singing those songs, basically being all by yourself, as if I had been there, as if I had felt a tiny part of what you've been feeling, and as if I suddenly knew instincitvely why you chose those songs (which usually don't mean much to me). It was just a little moment, but that struck me so much that I'm almost crying right now.

[knightsblack.livejournal.com]

Stumbled across this while I was looking through your writings (ooh, that sounds weird. Actually, I came across your "Hurricane" story in the Museslash community and LOVED IT, it seriously cracked me the fuck up and it was so sexy and wonderful, and then I saw this series and was intrigued). Felt like dropping a comment after reading this.

Excellent review of a fantastic album. I get the whole personal memories thing as well - this is the album that got me to notice these guys to begin with ("Starlight" was the first song I ever heard by these guys. It's one of their most lovely songs ever, and I love the bit about you singing it to your dad). This is the album whose tour I went to see the band on. This is the album I would sit out on my deck at night and listen to while watching the stars, back when I lived in the Colorado mountains.

Absolution is my personal favorite for so many reasons, but this one will always, always have a special place as well. And "Knights of Cydonia" is one of my top 5 Muse songs as well 'cause it kicks all sorts of ass and I'm so glad we have a current band out there that makes songs like that again, so...yeah.

I enjoyed reading through this music series thus far - I love lists like this, you make me want to do my own now - and look forward to seeing what other albums show up here. I love your writing style as well, you know how to make things so relatable and personal. Well done.