Absolution (album)

Did You Know?

• Muse set aside time to develop the album, renting a country house outside Brighton for six months in early 2002 to write material.
• During the writing period, Muse was dropped by their American record label Maverick; Serj Tankian of System of a Down attempted to sign them to his label Serjical Strike.
• The cover was created by Storm Thorgerson, who cut shapes from hardboard, fixed them to poles and photographed them in a chalk pit to create strong shadows.

Recording

Muse started work on this album in late 2002 at Air Studios in London, where they cut "Butterflies and Hurricanes" and "Blackout" with producers John Cornfield and Paul Reed. American producer Rich Costey, who had worked with bands like Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave that Muse admired, took over for the rest of the record. Costey aimed for a bigger, more aggressive sound. He and the band returned to Air later in 2002 to develop "Hysteria" and "Stockholm Syndrome". After Costey's input, Bellamy reworked "Hysteria". On "Stockholm Syndrome", Costey used a Nord modular synth to vocode Bellamy's guitar. In early 2003, they spent ten days at Livingston Recording Studios in London finishing up earlier takes. The bulk of the album was cut at Grouse Lodge in Ireland. Tensions with their label and a lawsuit with their production company made the sessions difficult; Bellamy later recalled a real sense that the band might not survive. Bassist Chris Wolstenholme was battling alcoholism at the time. For basic tracks, the band played live together, then added overdubs. Costey kept editing to a minimum to maintain a natural feel, using little reverb and relying on the room's own ambience. Bellamy played custom Manson guitars through Marshall and Diezel amps, while Wolstenholme split his signal into three Marshalls—one clean and two distorted. The Kyma sound design system was used on tracks like "Time Is Running Out", "Hysteria", and "Apocalypse Please", giving them what Bellamy called a futuristic, bright sound.

Music and lyrics

Absolution contains elements of alternative rock, progressive rock, hard rock, and art rock, with a sound more polished and direct than Muse's previous albums. Wolstenholme described it as a continuation of Origin of Symmetry. Bellamy initially planned Absolution as a concept album about insanity, with "Butterflies & Hurricanes" a remnant of that idea; the direction changed after the Iraq War began. The lyrics incorporate themes of fear, mistrust, achievement and joy, and a general theme of things coming to an end. Bellamy was inspired by 9/11 conspiracy theories, which he later disavowed as dangerous. The end of Muse's relationship with their American label Maverick also influenced the lyrics. Bellamy said absolution was not necessarily a religious word, but suggested that making music is a way of understanding things.

Release and promotion

For the launch of Absolution, Muse held a press event featuring a star show at the London Planetarium, followed by a party at Madame Tussauds. The album came out on September 22, 2003, in both CD and double vinyl formats. Its first single, "Stockholm Syndrome," was offered as a download and was obtained over 20,000 times; because of contract terms, Muse could not make it free, so it cost $0.99 in the US. "Time Is Running Out" gave Muse their first top-10 UK single and earned US gold certification. "Hysteria" hit number 17 in the UK and number 9 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. This was Muse’s first album to appear on US charts, reaching number 1 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers and number 107 on the Billboard 200; it went gold in the US in March 2007. During the tour, Muse played arenas for the first time and headlined the 2004 Glastonbury Festival. The tour concluded with two sold-out nights at London’s Earls Court.

Critical reception

Absolution holds a Metacritic score of 72 out of 100 from 16 reviews, signifying generally positive reception. Alternative Press described its chaotic choruses as feeling like the victorious climax of a monumental effort. Andrew Future of Drowned in Sound deemed it a truly elemental opus. Tyler Fisher of Sputnikmusic considered it Muse’s most cohesive album, one that refines their sound by expanding on newer ideas and enhancing existing ones. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian noted that the band appears at the peak of their abilities, with their confidence carrying listeners through the album’s excesses. Rob Kemp of Rolling Stone was less impressed, drawing parallels to Radiohead and arguing that Bellamy’s vocals lack comparable ingenuity. In 2005, Rock Hard ranked it 345th in The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. Q readers voted it the 23rd-best British album in 2009, while Kerrang! readers named it the second-best album of the century so far that same year. In 2024, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy called it his favorite album of the century. A remastered 20th-anniversary edition, Absolution XX Anniversary, arrived on 17 November 2023.