(Excerpt from 'Taken by Storm - The Album Art by Storm Thorgerson') Dominic Howard: "The artwork can either been seen as people coming down to Earth or leaving the Earth, it's open to interpretation". The artwork was designed by Storm Thorgerson. Ībsolution was reissued in double 12" vinyl on the 18th of August, 2009 to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the debut album, Showbiz. The album has gone double platinum in the UK since its release and had been certified gold in the US. The Australian re-release contained an extra disc, featuring 6 tracks from the Big Day Out 2004 (23 rd Jan 2004) in Sydney. The first single, " Stockholm Syndrome", was released on the 14 th July 2003. These could be returned and replaced with corrected inlays, although many were kept for collectors value. Some editions of Absolution, including the limited editions, had inlay errors when it was released in September the positions of "Interlude" and "Hysteria" were switched on the track list. The DVD had 40 minutes of 'The making of Absolution' footage, as well as pictures to view. There was a limited edition of Absolution released that featured a bonus DVD.
CONCEPT OF ABSOLUTION ALBUM MUSE SOFTWARE
The promo CD-R is encrypted so that the tracks cannot be ripped, and instead contains software through which the tracks can be played. Rich Costey began producing Absolution after a the tracks " Blackout" and " Butterflies & Hurricanes" were recorded with Paul Reeve, who co-produced Showbiz and John Cornfield, who engineered Showbiz and Orgin of Symmetry. "Soldier's Poem" was ultimately reworked for the follow-up to Absolution, Black Holes and Revelations. Matt suggested in 2008 that this was because the band did not like "Fury" as much after playing it live before the album's release. Whilst Matt wanted to keep "Fury" on the album, it was dropped in favour of " The Small Print" as per Dom and Chris's preference, and it became the Japanese bonus track and B-side to " Sing for Absolution". , the songs " Fury" and " Soldier's Poem" were originally intended to appear on Absolution. The album was recorded at Grouse Lodge Studios in Ireland and AIR Studios in London during 2003. This would later be changed sometime into development. I think it's just suggesting that the act of making music is a way of understanding things." ĭuring 2002, Chris was quoted saying that the third album would be called "Universal Melodies". In an Interview about the name of the album Matt said: "I think the absolution is not necessarily a religious word It has meanings of purity, but it's not necessarily talking from a Christian or any particular religious point of view. I met this girl from over there so I'm into all that" Also in the same interview he said: "I think there'll be some songs that are straightforward rock, some of my favourite new songs are like ABBA!" Title Matt explained that the songs are more "uplifting", mostly because he has fallen in love as he said: "I'm not married yet! But I've been drawn into this Italian world. There are moments when you, the rest of the band, the producer and the assistant producer all look at each other and think 'what the fuck are we doing? we've completely lost the plot' Matt said that he started to experience violent mood swings in the studio: "The album goes from being the most amazing music I've heard in my life to the most laughable piece of shit I've ever heard within the space of a couple o minutes I was moving between the extremes of doubt and absolute ridiculous confidence. Like the previous Muse album, Origin of Symmetry, Absolution is influenced by classical composers such as Sergei Rachmaninov and Samuel Barber, whilst "Endlessly" introduces a more electronic sound with songs such as " The Small Print" and " Thoughts of a Dying Atheist" being guitar-led.Īt the beginning of the album Matt started to writing songs about mundane home matters, according to Matt: "Showbiz was a bit of teenage angst, "Origin of Symmetry" was about going on tour all the time and losing connection with our family and friends so we don't really know anyone apart from ourselves and even ourselves we didn't know anymore and "Absolution" is more about us being personable, about us being normal people at home" The songs featured on Absolution were written whilst Muse toured in support of Origin of Symmetry and Hullabaloo, with some songs such as " Fury" originating as early as early 2000. 16 th September 2009 (JP re-reissue) Ībsolution is Muse's third album and was released worldwide during September 2003.Matthew Bellamy, Dominic Howard, Christopher Wolstenholme