"Come with uncle and hear all proper. Hear angel trumpets and devil trombones. You are invited." --A Clockwork Orange

Muse's Absolution evokes a futuristic feeling throughout the album, with a firm foundation in its classical roots. The driving, often melodic bass lines, combined with prominent arpeggi in the backgrounds, give the album a desperately nihilistic quality, acquiescing to the idea that no matter what they do, they won't change anything, so why not have fun? I certainly had fun listening to this album.

My only problem with the album (and, indeed, the group itself) is the lead singer's enunciation (or lack thereof). He has a tendency to start phrases and longer notes in a pinched manner, and then flair out in a somewhat whiny fashion. The result is something like this: in "Hysteria," instead of "I want it now...", the listener gets something resembling "I want it neeow..." This would sound great if the band were fronted by a cat, but seeing as Matthew Bellamy is a real, live, human Englishman, it would be great if he could pronounce the beginnings of his phrases like one.

Despite this one criticism, I enjoyed Absolution. I felt a quote from Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange served as an appropriate title due to the "desperately nihilistic" nature of the album I described before. I can positively say this album is not a lure to a rape, a beating, or a murder; however, it is an invitation to all the young devotchkas and chellovecks to slooshy a right horrorshow pop-disk.

(Translations for my Nadsat use borrowed from A Clockwork Orange can be found at http://soomka.com/nadsat.html)