In Retrospect: "Muse - Black Holes & Revelations"

Black Holes and Revelations is the fourth studio release by the English alternative rock band Muse. The album was released on 3 July 2006, and gained popularity with its biggest hits Supermassive Black Hole, Starlight and Knights of Cydonia.  

Backstory

The album was a follow-up to their third release Absolution in 2003, which received high praise from music critics, and was the album that got the band their fame in the United States for the first time. The writing process took place in an old castle in France, because the band wanted a place that was free of all distractions, and was according to Matt Bellamy someplace where the band could finally  "concentrate, spend time and be surrounded by different musical influences".  

The record was special to the band as it was the first album where the band didn’t have any deadlines, leaving the band to learn a lot more about mixing, which was before this album just left to the engineers. All band members are were included in the production of the album, making the album sound exactly like the band wanted, which was a big gain for the band.     

Recording/Release

The recording of the album took place in a studio in France where the great Pink Floyd recorded their album The Wall, which appealed to bassist Chris Wolstenholme, whom thought it was inspiring, knowing there was something big that was created there. The inspiring location made the band go into a more of an epic and massive approach to writing music, instead of thinking how the song will be played live, which was always thought about until this project.    

Though the place was very inspiring for writing, the recording proved to be difficult as the process was very slow due to technical difficulties, leaving the band to record most of the album in New York. 

Upon release, the record gained positive reviews from music critics. Metacritic summed up the rating from 30 mainstream critics to an average review score of 75/100. It received top praise from E! Online, Q, Alternative Press and was named the Album of the Year by Planet Sound. Besides the number one place, it also reached number 3 on NME Albums of the Year and number 2 on the Q Albums of the Year list.  

In Retrospect...

This is the album that introduced me to the band. I was shown Starlight on Youtube by a friend of mine back in 2006/2007 and I instantly became a big fan of the band. I got home and got a copy of the album, which I have listened to it in its entirety, and absolutely loved it. To this day, it is still my favourite release by the band, though it is a close match since I don’t really dislike any of the albums that the band released. If you want to listen to some great modern alternative rock, this is the pick for you.