Hullabaloo Soundtrack

by

Muse

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The quest for world domination continues. Here is Muse's third instalment of progressive, heavy rock. This time it's a double CD of B-sides and live songs. First, the B-sides. It must be said that Muse have a fairly set sound, and a lot of their songs sound fairly similar. Upon closer inspection, you will notice that it is mainly Matt Bellamy's voice that causes this effect. This is more evident that ever on the B-sides album. Many of these songs experiment further away from their album tracks. Opener Forced In is spaced out and eerie rather than in-your-face, and Map of Your Head is a sprightly, major-chord formed ditty, complete with medieval acoustic guitar, yet Matt Bellamy's voice causes them to sound like trademark Muse all the same.

There's no denying it, Muse's B-sides are not as strong as their album tracks, generally. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Whilst it does mean that this B-side album is nowhere near as good as last year's Origin of Symmetry, it at least means that they are selecting the right tracks for their albums. In this way B-sides albums are a bit of a no-win situation: if they are only average, they are criticised as substandard and if they are excellent the band are criticised for not making them album tracks.

Not that there aren't good efforts here. The aforementioned Map of Your Head is very enjoyable, whilst Shrinking Universe is classic Muse and standout Nature_1 has the strongest tune on the CD. Generally though, this collection doesn't bear the killer hooklines that Origin of Symmetry, or, indeed, Showbiz did, whilst being enjoyable and worth owning, so CD1 gets 3 stars.

The live CD is a different matter. Muse are an intense band. Everything about their music is intense. And intense bands are excellent live. Muse are no exception. Live CDs tend to either be interesting variations on the recorded versions with added intensity but played comparatively poorly, with the singer missing notes, or well played, but no different to the studio recordings. Here Muse manage to avoid either trap, managing to sound live and intense while playing very professionally.

Here you can hear how well the trio work together, with bass more audible than on studio recordings, as they sometimes hit little periods of improvisation. Variations are added to the songs: the guitar riff on Muscle Museum is made more complex, while Micro Cuts is taken at a faster and more natural pace, and epics Citizen Erased and Megalomania hit their peaks and valleys with even more passion than on Origin of Symmetry: one of the finest moments of Hullabaloo being as Citizen Erased quietens down after its loudest sections, with Matt Bellamy beautifully handling the vocals, in a wonderfully exhausted sort of way.

It is credit to Bellamy's fantastic singing that he can manage the incredibly high notes and difficult techniques just as easily live as in the studio. The only time he seems slightly pressed is on recent non-album single Dead Star, though this is fully explainable by the fact that they had not actually recorded it at the time, and so had not benefited from the producer's input over how the song should sound, and they are evidently not quite done working on it at the time of the recording. Still, even this track is fantastic. Therefore, CD2 is nothing short of brilliant, and it gets 4 1/2 stars.

First, let me warn you that your DVD will probably only play on your computer. Second, the music and band are incredible. Third, the absolute worst live production that I've ever seen.

This is strictly going to be a background video for me. The music is great but the cuts are every nano second. You may think I'm exaggerating, but if it's not a nano second per shot, then it's pretty close. You will have a seizure within the first minute while the shots are cut to the drum beat.

The bad part about this.....these guys are awesome to watch. It's a three-piece genious....and you can't focus on anything for more than a split second. One of the best things about Muse live is their presence. This production is so bad it makes them look awful. If this production company knew anything about cutting footage, they'd have left the camera focused on one person for at least a few seconds.

Don't get me wrong, I'm the last person to complain as you can verify yourself if you so desire. But, this instance was too painful for me. The clarity of the footage is brilliant.....but cuts wrecked it. Makes the quick shots on an MTV video look long.

Buy this thing strictly for the sound. The DVD will otherwise produce the worst seizure/headache ever!

Cheers! I'm going to look for something a little complimentary in the live footage area.