Origin of Symmetry opens quietly with the piano arpeggios of single, 'New Born'. Note Matthew Bellamy's noisy breath intake (his style). Thankfully, this is a rock record and soon, with a distorted guitar riff he signals the band to do what they do best (that is rock by the way). As the drop D riff relies on a chord progression to get anywhere, none of the parts of the song stood out to me - thus making for a good but not great start to the album.
Of the other singles, 'Bliss', with it's 3 octave synth chord ascend-descends, has nicely bass-driven verses, as does 'Hyper Music', the latter making a double A-sided single with a cover of 'Feeling Good' which, not only rocks but has a section where Matt delivers a verse through megaphone. 'Plug In Baby' sees clever use of an harmonic minor scale for it's guitar leads and the vocal outside for the outro reaches a high point.
Other tracks which are as good, if not better, include 'Citizen Erased', where squelchy low notes meets squealing harmonics in a guitar riff that provides the staples of a song which is only then to be broken down into piano and regret. In 'Micro Cuts', a song with grinding guitar arpeggios, changing time signatures, and Matt's treated vocals going into falsetto overdrive, the heavy riff attack towards the end see Muse have their Rage Against The Machine moment.
As well as the seedy bass, I love the guitar leads in 'Darkshines', some of which have been put through a trumpet effect - there certainly is a brass instrument quality to it. There's no electric guitars in 'Space Dementia', a heavy rock song with piano, and bass creeping around, seemingly up to no good...
'Screenager', the only acoustic guitar song on Origin of Symmetry is an obvious target for weakest track on the album but the use of guitar scales and percussion (human skulls, apparently) makes it not too bad a listen. As a conclusion, 'Megalomania' doesn't hit you until the chorus with it's pipe organ, though there is a (keyboard) alto sax waltzing about in there, still, with Bellamy's vocal overlays being at their most ambitious it's a nice way for the album to end on a high.
Matthew Bellamy puts his guitar and keyboard ability to good use but the songs sound much a band effort. Dominic Howard, on the drums, doesn't do anything outstanding though. Not an album for which I tune into the individual parts of songs, but one where the tracks are consistently good.
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Dec 1st, 2007
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