Muse has come a long way since its 1999 debut, Showbiz, when critics dubbed the band Radiohead (circa Pablo Honey) clones. The group’s ambitious prog rock follow-up, Origin of Symmetry, propelled Muse into a different class. The highly anticipated 2003 release, Absolution, has now arrived, and lead singer Matt Bellamy and his mates have not let listeners down.

The melodrama continues with “Butterflies and Hurricanes,” a track that has garnered comparison to “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Paranoid Android.” The song slowly builds and the momentum becomes its strength as Bellamy sings, “You’ve got to change the world/and use this chance to be heard/your time is now.” Halfway through, Bellamy plays a piano solo, and if that were not weird enough, the music pauses at the four-minute mark only to be followed by an inspired reprise.

Absolution soars as an ambitious rock opera, but its ballads contain a more classical feel with the use of orchestra. Absolution should put Muse on the short list of best bands in the world and is far more emotionally charged than Radiohead’s overrated Hail to the Thief, released earlier this year. Music fans should pray that Absolution receives a U.S. release, for most Americans are missing out on what Radiohead could have been.

Grade: AB

~Paul Day