Album Details

• Artist: Muse
• Album: Haarp
• Label: Warner Bros
• Year of Release: 2008
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: symphony on 2008-04-26

Grab your damn boom-blasters!

Matthew Bellamy is a master technician. Rather, musician. Difference? Concerning him, nothing discernible. Reflect on his band, Muse, and its elaborate catalogue and recognize that they've made progressive, alternative rock look easy and have thus reinvented its cool. HAARP, Muse's latest CD/DVD release, epitomizes this point. Oh--and no one compare this band to Radiohead. They are nothing--no, really, nothing--alike. Sorry, just a pet peeve. (I'm ignore the sidebar to the right off this review.)

I was paid to write the following: (Note: this isn't true.)

I'm not entirely sure how to review a live DVD. How do you discuss cinematography (simplistic yet elaborate)? It appears M&M sponsored the wardrobes of the trio. There is a particular portion of the DVD I must discuss. Right when Bellamy brings us into the hit single "Knights of Cydonia," we get a waist-up shot of him. It kind of shows him as demi-god like entity, just rocking back and forth and just being generally energetic and hyped with what he is doing. Also, Muse doesn't disappoint with a setlist. Most would say "New Born--really?" but live, the piano-intro with the Bellamy and crowd duet is virtually haunting. June 16, 2007 at Wembley Hall, the day and location that England got laid. Awesome.

User Reviews and Comments

on 2008-04-27 SolitaryMan Said:

I'll have to check this out sometime. Muse are a damn good band, and they do make it look very easy. I know this gets said more than enough but I wish some of their songs weren't tainted with Matt's slightly annoying habit of letting his extreme inhales be heard apart of the rest of the vocals. Sorta like Mr. Bright Eyes does sometimes, but Matt does it so much more. Does he do it live, too?
Not Rated