Sing for Absolution

Dl: It'll be like my son wiping it on my sleeve all day.
Pollio: yeah ⁓
Dl: I feel like my music is too loud, but I really don't want to turn it down. Coming up on VerseCorus Verse, what if Radio had leaned in to the popularity? What if they made another guitar album after OK Computer? And what if instead of Kid A, they made something bigger, more okay more orchestral, more dramatic, louder? Well, they didn't, but Muse did. It's Absolution, it's 2003, and it's next.
Pollio: Can't hear it. You
Dl: Hi everybody, I'm DL, and with me is Evil Muscles and Metal Jimmy. Evil, how are you?
Evil: Muscles and metal, that is me. I'm great. Little a little nasal leaf due to the allergies, but other than that, I'm doing great.
Pollio: It's true.
Dl: Are you? What's your sh you got a the shirt it looks like a map of America, but it's Brazil? ⁓ that's so not the map of America. Never mind.
Pollio: Isprysel.
Evil: It's ⁓ I I saw it no, it's this is it's Sepultura. It's ⁓ the S, the up the Sepultura S with the Brazilian flag. Yeah. I went and saw them recently and it was amazing.
Dl: ⁓ I love it.
Pollio: Thanks
Dl: You did, you saw Sepultura. ⁓ we should talk about that after I introduce Rachel the Stranger Polio. Rachel, how have you been?
Evil: Yes, an Exodus.
Pollio: The stranger makes, nevermind, that's not appropriate. It doesn't matter, you know what I'm talking about.
Dl: Does it make you think of when you masturbate with your offhand?
Pollio: Well, I thought you like sit on your hand so it falls asleep.
Dl: That's that's what it is, yes. ⁓ my god, we really were thinking of the same thing. That's fantastic. Everybody, we're here. Read my newsletter. I'm gonna talk I'm gonna talk about the stranger quite a bit. ⁓ Rachel, how are you?
Pollio: You
Evil: ⁓ no Yeah.
Pollio: remind me not to post this one so my dad doesn't hear it. Yeah. ⁓
Evil: Ha ha ha ha. ⁓
Pollio: I am still allergic, from last week. ⁓ it is just pouring here and everything is getting exposed. And so I'm just dying.
Evil: Yeah. Feeling it here too.
Dl: You listeners, watchers, not listeners, we are on YouTube. We have a whopping, I think we have like a whopping 60 viewers or something like that. Rachel looks very specifically like somebody right now with their hair like this, and I cannot figure it out. So help me out, please. ⁓ put it in the comments. Be be appropriate, please. That's what you say on YouTube for people to be appropriate. evil
Pollio: Ooh, that's so many.
Evil: Moving on up.
Pollio: Be nice.
Evil: Yeah. Mm.
Pollio: They're going to listen.
Dl: We are halfway done with recording today. A, how are you feeling? And B, what are what are we doing afterwards on this fine Saturday?
Evil: Feeling good. And I don't know. I don't have any plans. Yeah.
Dl: I love that. Makes me jealous.
Evil: I think it depends on how tips I tipsy I am after r recording. Tits up.
Pollio: Tits, how tits are you? Tits up.
Dl: Well Speaking of which lightweight McGee over here, I I am very, very buzzed after that one coop drink. I have also become a a wuss face. But we're not there yet. before is it?
Pollio: That's okay.
Evil: Happens.
Pollio: Yeah, it's cheaper and more fun quicker.
Dl: True. That all those things are true. R Rach
Evil: Quick fun.
Pollio: David Quickfun listed, that's what they call him.
Evil: Rachel, quick fun.
Dl: David quick fun list and keep it on the DL. Rach, how did you come to Muse? the phrasing, how did you study for this album? it's for me, it's an album where the entry point matters. Was this your first experience with this album? And and how did you get into it? And did I say that we're talking about absolution by Muse? Because we are.
Evil: my god.
Pollio: Mm-hmm.
Evil: Are we doing phrasing still?
Pollio: Mmm. This was, it's all a blur. It depends on how you edit it. I think coming at this one, similar to, did, okay, computer a while back, a couple episodes ago, nine-ish episodes. Was it that many episodes ago? It was a while ago. Anyway, I was just familiar with,
Dl: Yeah. It's a long time. Yeah. Yep.
Pollio: Twilight Muse and ⁓ Radio Muse. so, yeah.
Evil: Wow.
Dl: I think that's probably a lot of people.
Pollio: And so, ⁓ yeah, did not, ⁓ did not listen to me at the time when this came out. so, ⁓ I came out at almost fully blind, ⁓ which is nice. So, and then similar studying of, of lyrics up, you know, just reading it and really hyper focusing. So yeah.
Dl: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. I love that. Evil, you strike me as the type that would have a either love-hate relationship with Muse or a or a just not enough to really get into. Where where are you at with the band Muse?
Evil: Love hate relationship is that's a good way of putting it. I consider myself a fan, but Okay, let me back up a little bit. So our our friend QuickFun, Rachel, in studying for okay computer, she put on Kid A for a while. I did something similar for this episode. I was listening to the origin of symmetry for a bit. Before I went and pulled the outlines, and I'm like, whoops.
Pollio: That's what they call me. She did. Dumb idiot. Did you? Yes! You're stupid too!
Evil: And I was having some deja vu because we've talked about the origin of symmetry on the pod before. Yeah. I'm like, why are we doing this again? I'm like, mm-hmm, oops. Oopsies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. ⁓ so I yeah, I'm a Muse fan, but I'm a Muse fan, and this is so on the nose because if you took two bands to pull DNA from
Dl: You and I have done Origin of Symmetry, yeah. We're not.
Pollio: What temp agency did you get us from?
Evil: And throw in a blender to get Muse. One would be Radiohead, who we've just talked about, and the other one would be Queen. ⁓ I am a Muse fan in very similar way that I am a Queen fan, in that I'm not necessarily a huge fan of their albums, but their hits are some of the best ever. So that's that's my relationship with Muse.
Pollio: Yeah.
Dl: ⁓ yeah.
Pollio: Mm-hmm.
Dl: The the the Queen correlation is so good. It's you know, ⁓ someday, I mean they could be now, someday Muse will be a greatest hits band. And ⁓ yeah.
Evil: Yeah. Dude, it's gonna be bonkers how good that list of songs will be. Yeah.
Dl: Gonna be metal. ⁓ they've got a new album coming out very, very soon. I am not holding my breath.
Evil: I know. ⁓ They are capable of greatness. They are.
Dl: That's all I'll say about that. But we are not we're n Absolutely they are. ⁓ and you are talking to a guy that owns at least six Muse albums on vinyl. Like I'm I am I've been a massive Muse fan since the first time I heard this album. I did hear this before Origin of Symmetry and there are things on this on this album that real d that changed n
Evil: Yeah.
Dl: really changed the way that I played music. Like there was something about Muse at the time that they came out that made it cool again to be operatic, to be to not be like a power chord band, to start looking at things differently. I was also I was in a three man band with you guys know and love Sven, a a musical fucking mastermind. So there were a lot of when we wrote, it felt like a lot of similarities to what they were probably doing. I'm not at all comparing myself to to any member of this fucking band because I can't touch them with a fucking 30 foot pole. I'm just saying, ⁓ it I just th I fell in love with them immediately because that's I will say this. If I were to have been good enough to be in a band that made it. It would have been a very, very similar band to what Muse is. I'll put it like that. So I love them. Yeah. It's like, man, I should have written that. I really should have. But yeah, but well, here's the thing about booze. It's really good. ⁓ speaking of which, what are we drinking?
Pollio: Interesting. You should have tried harder. You had so much potential. You really flush that down the toilet.
Evil: Yeah.
Pollio: segue
Dl: ⁓ I already said it. I'm a little bit buzzed from our last episode. I was gonna make a drink, I decided not to, and just also it's a gorgeous day out and I am gonna wanna kinda hang out, maybe do a little weeding or something like that after this. ⁓ I'm drinking the Rhone. A little little corona for you. the the Rona.
Pollio: Nice. No lime? You don't like lime in your Karna?
Dl: I am I like lime in my Corona, but not always. I'm ki I'm a little bit fifty fifty on it. ⁓ also I don't know if I had any lime yet left. I think I used it all in my last drink, so
Pollio: Okay, not today. You're gonna get scurvy.
Dl: That's okay. That's what sailors are supposed to do. I'm drinking a corona. I'm s I wa it's super boring, but it's also a perfect day. ⁓ it's the good timing of the year, maybe not when this comes out. I'm I'm bombing on what we're drinking tonight. I apologize. Let's go to Rachel. Rachel, what are you drinking?
Pollio: You were a sailor! Killing it. ⁓ coffee paste from nine episodes ago. ⁓ I have some Pepsi and I have some more whipped Smirnoff, ⁓ vodka. Cause the faster I get through the Pepsi, the faster I can start drinking water again and get healthy. So I need to just push through.
Dl: Ayo. That's true. That's true. Where are you at on your buzzed level?
Pollio: She's fine. She could passenger in a car. Easy.
Dl: Pat so she's a f a four.
Pollio: I mean anything above like any amount of alcohol I'm not driving, but like if I
Dl: She's a six. Well, no, I'm not. Okay, this isn't we're not trying to bust you here, Rachel.
Pollio: I'm not going to drive anywhere. promise. ⁓ I'd say probably like four, four. Let's go four. Yeah. Solid D.
Dl: Okay. It's just the argumentative side of her because that's exactly what I said. Evil, ⁓ what are you drinking for absolution?
Evil: So way back in the past, clear back in like the year 2000 when our okay computer episode came out, you w made a themed drink, a riff on a margarita called a paranoid android. It was with Blue Curacao. And I was jealous of you.
Dl: In the year two thousand
Pollio: Yes! Thank you.
Dl: So long ago.
Evil: ⁓ 'cause I I think I tried to find something okay computer related, but I didn't think about going into the songs, the actual tracks. However, I did find an absolution, and that's what I am drinking tonight. And it's really, really good.
Pollio: ⁓ what's in it? Ooh, it's so pretty. You poison your fancy glasses.
Dl: What's in an absolution?
Evil: It's delicious. This version, and I think there's some different versions. Benedictine, Marischino Liqueur, ⁓ brandy, but this ep the this episode, this version, this recipe called for Laird's Apple Jack, and I use my Laird's bottled in Bond, lemon juice, and an absinthe rinse. So I think it's kind of a last word spec. You know, yeah, it's ⁓
Pollio: You're drunk.
Dl: That sounds great.
Evil: Three quarters of an ounce, Benedictine, three quarters of an ounce, Marisquino liqueur, three quarters of an ounce, the brandy or apple jack, three quarters of an ounce, lemon juice. Absinthe rinse. Delicious. Really, really good. I am and I made a double, so I got more.
Dl: It sounds amazing. I'm glad we ended with you because you d you absolutely win on this one. f n for those in the room, not you all, for those in the room, we just did one of the best albums ever made. ⁓ and now we're doing an album that actually I a listener once said to me
Pollio: more where that came from.
Dl: When I don't remember how the topic got out. We were talking Muse, but a listener once said that they were convinced that Muse found Radiohead's real album after OK Computer in the Garbage and took it, and that was Absolution. I Evil said something really interesting in the last in the OK Computer ⁓ that I think that I want him to address that.
Pollio: interesting. Okay.
Evil: Ha ha ha.
Dl: You don't th I see I see this album as kind of a a ⁓ sp spiritual predecessor to okay computer. I don't think you agree with that.
Evil: There's two like we I I mentioned like if you take and there's other elements obviously, like Rachmaninov, but if you take ⁓ Queen and Radiohead and DNA wise squeeze out some sort of like clone of the two mixed together, you you get Muse they're They're in the same ballpark as Radiohead, but they're not I I don't see them as being that related. And I think it's because Bellamy can can fucking be vicious on guitar.
Dl: Yes. Yes.
Evil: Johnny Greenwood is never vicious on guitar. He's incredibly creative and plays some wildly entertaining stuff, but he never gets like metal adjacent. And I think that for me is like there, there's something just
Dl: Yeah.
Evil: They're the the ability to to like edge over into hard rock metal that Muse has makes them s a very different thing.
Dl: W I agree. I do I think that when you were talking about their their blendability, they to me they are way more they are eighty if they're the two bands, they're eighty percent queen, twenty percent radio head. Like because what you said was great in metal adjacent. Th nothing an okay computer b beyond maybe a couple of guitar licks. No. But this this also there's it's
Evil: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not even close. Not even close. No.
Dl: I'm glad that you said that because bless you. Because one of the things that is so different, ⁓ that's such a polar opposites for me between Muse and Radiohead is how bombastic Muse can be. It
Pollio: Noooo
Evil: That's the par I was I have that word in my notes. Bombastic. Even like the P Yes, yes. It's very on the nose in Muse. Radiohead, it's n they're it's veiled. Like it's like Muse is very in your face with what they do. And Radioheads
Dl: Radiohead is the opposite of that. ⁓ Yes. Yeah. Well be Yeah.
Evil: ⁓ i ⁓ i it it's they're more elusive with the way that they do stuff.
Dl: No, we've got v it's very Radiohead is very, very dainty on the piano. Muse is fucking liberace, like pounding the fuck off of it.
Evil: Yeah. Yeah. Like they could wear Elvis singlets and ⁓ you know, the one piece and it would it would work for Muse.
Dl: Right, Rachel? ⁓ hair of a huh of blue. No, no. It would. It would, it would yes. He c he he could wear some Elton John stuff, I feel.
Evil: Yeah, it would. Radiohead doesn't do that. Yes, totally. And it would make sense.
Dl: Yeah. Right, Rachel. Mm-hmm. Should we do a friendship test?
Pollio: Mm-hmm. Yes!
Dl: Rach, what are our favorite songs?
Pollio: Yeah. This was, this could have been easier. ⁓ I, I didn't think it was super easy for me. I picked for evil Stockholm syndrome.
Dl: Easy? ⁓ Mm. Mm-hmm.
Evil: Pretty solid pick.
Pollio: Priscilla pick yes. ⁓ for David, said butterflies and hurricanes. Cause again, this seemed like a snobby choice. And that is you as a person.
Dl: Not bad picks at all in my opinion. ⁓ for me, I said evils is the small print. It's ⁓ an undeniable groove. There is zero restraint. We're talking about bombastic, heavy, metal adjacent, fast to loud to fast. It's just that's very evil to me. For Rach, I said sing for absolution. ⁓ I think it's super melodic.
Pollio: Hmm.
Dl: ⁓ the she's a big orchestral fan. The strings are doing exactly what strings should be doing. have some g and there's some cool rabbit holy stories about that stuff. Yeah, I don't know if Rachel found it or not, but that's what I'm I'm going sing for absolution. She's shaking her head no. Then she shook her head, yes, I'm very confused.
Pollio: Didn't go in rabbit holes. That's what I was shaking my head no about. No rabbit holes. I know nothing.
Dl: Okay, all right. ⁓ Evil, what are our favorite songs?
Evil: For you, I went I I'm usually like he's I I never pick the on the nose pick for you because I feel like you're and then often it is. Often that is your pick. So I'm like, fuck it, I'm gonna do it this time. And I went with hysteria. ⁓ for Rachel it was more difficult. ⁓ for a long time I had time as running out, but I switched it to falling away with you.
Dl: Yeah. I Time is Running Out is the surpr I should have picked that for Rachel, but that's okay. ⁓ Absolution by Muse, everybody, released September 22nd of 2003 through Warner Brothers or East West Records, if you're nasty. This is Muse's third album produced by John Lecky and Paul Reeve. ⁓ also Rich Costy.
Pollio: You
Dl: By the way, little side tangent speaking of the radio head stuff, John Leckie produced Ben's. ⁓ so not too accidental of a lineage, I guess you could say. ⁓ three members, motherfucker. Matt Bellamy, Chris Wollstenholm.
Pollio: That's insane.
Evil: Right. Yep.
Dl: And Dominic Howard. everything on this album is three people in an orchestra, and I've got a couple stories on the orchestra that I love so much. ⁓ 51 minutes, 14 tracks, debuted at number one in the UK, five million copies thus far. ⁓ this is the album that broke Muse internationally, and critically I think the most respected record, ⁓ mostly because it deserves it, I would say.
Pollio: Ha ha.
Dl: And there are a couple other things that I don't wanna talk about yet on my stats. Rachel, what did I miss?
Pollio: I had a little bit about the cover, which was interesting. So you've got it behind you. The guy who did the cover...
Dl: Love it. Love it. time out. 'Cause this was one of the cooler finds ever. and I even asked the guy 'cause I'm not a dirt bag, I even asked them when I found it and they're like, Nope, that's the price. You guys can't see so this sticker right there says two dollars. I got this
Evil: What?
Pollio: Holy shit, does say $2, doesn't it?
Evil: That makes no sense.
Dl: This is not a bootleg. This is a double album. 180 gram. I got it for two bucks. I think I think maybe the owner fucking hates Muse. ⁓ but I got it for two bucks.
Pollio: Why? ⁓ well, it'll do it.
Evil: What?
Pollio: But he also hates money, apparently. So that's too bad. You would have paid more.
Dl: It's my it's my favorite find I've ever had. yeah. ⁓ anyway, sorry, Rach.
Evil: Yeah. That is a bargain.
Pollio: ⁓ good. The cover Storm ⁓ Thorgerson. Thorgerson doesn't matter. ⁓ He did artwork for Pink Floyd as well as the artwork for that. And that piece of art, I cannot, I don't remember what it was, but there was ⁓ inspiration from a really cool art piece that that came from with like floating people.
Evil: That's not a real name.
Dl: Sounds right. No shit. You know, it's really interesting that you say that 'cause it does it does feel like a Pink Floydish s sort of art. That's fucking cool.
Pollio: Yeah.
Evil: Yeah, it does.
Pollio: Yeah, he did Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, apparently.
Dl: I wish. I wish. Very cool. Very cool. Evil, how familiar timeout.
Pollio: You do. Yeah.
Evil: ⁓ it's a g it's it's like
Pollio: Did you find what it's supposed to look like?
Dl: ⁓ Evil just had a holy shit moment. See, Evil, this is why I'll put the pressure on him live. This is why we should have a Evil's art corner every single episode about the covers.
Evil: Yeah.
Pollio: Yeah.
Evil: It it's a it's linked to a ⁓ Rene Margurit painting. Yeah. Holy f
Pollio: Yes, that's what it is. But when you look at that piece of art, you're like, ⁓ yeah, I could see it. Do you just adjust the album a little bit? So people are floating directly up as opposed to diagonally.
Evil: Yeah. That's crazy.
Dl: Yeah.
Evil: What I love that so very much. Hmm, okay.
Pollio: Yeah.
Dl: Eva, what was your experience with this album specifically before you started studying for this?
Evil: I don't I don't think I'd ever listened to the album before. I knew some of the tracks, but I I don't think I'd ever listen to it as an album. So this was kind of a fresh listen.
Dl: Had you ever listened to any of their albums?
Evil: Have I d any of them?
Dl: I guess besides Origin of Symmetry, which we did. Yeah. Don't say of course. I don't know. I don't know. I'd surprise me if you've listened to full Muse albums, it surprises me that Absolution isn't one of ⁓ because it's their biggest one.
Evil: ⁓ yeah, of course. Yeah. Of course. That's shocking to me. I think black holes is bigger. ⁓
Dl: Is it their most po maybe Black Holes and Revela I don't know which one's their biggest album.
Evil: I so The albums that I'm probably the most
Dl: The Resistance has sold over five million copies. Holy fuck. Okay. All right. Sorry. Go ahead.
Pollio: That's a lot.
Evil: Ye yeah, ⁓ Black Holes and Revelations and the Resistance are the two that I'm probably the most and and the second law. That that era is where I'm probably the most familiar. And drones. Like that mid mid era are the albums I'm re I th I Black Holes and Revelations was that's where I found them.
Dl: Gotcha. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. Okay.
Evil: And so I I don't think I went backwards. I just think I started there and went forwards as new albums came out.
Dl: Makes sense to me. Rach, I'm c what was your opinion of Muse before going into this album and did it change?
Pollio: ⁓ it changed a little bit. going in, it was just, ⁓ those whitey bitches from the Twilight movies, honestly. That's all I had really heard. And, ⁓ they, think they are on at least three of the soundtracks for the four or five movies that they have. I'm not kidding. and they all sound very similar. The thing is, is that Stephanie Meyer while writing Twilight was like very into Muse. And so that's why she wanted some of it on.
Dl: ⁓ god.
Evil: Are you kidding? I d lost respect from use.
Dl: Good lord.
Pollio: the Twilight soundtrack. She was inspired by Muse ⁓ for her characters. So, and they obliged.
Dl: Wow.
Evil: Uh-huh. Huh.
Dl: That makes me I'm gonna have to take the fucking score down a little bit. ⁓ no. ⁓ yeah. I what I love is I already talked about it a little bit, but this is a rock album with very, very classical architecture. And I hadn't really nobody had come out with anything like that around that time. The bones of this record is Bellamy.
Pollio: I'm sorry guys.
Evil: Oof. ⁓
Dl: Being a fucking classical piano player. The you know, like the the the his phrasings and how decorative everything is, you know, like it's way more d weird to the comparisons to Radiohead and and Queen and all that, this is way more rock mon and off than it is Radiohead.
Evil: Yeah. Yep.
Pollio: Yeah.
Dl: Take all what I just said and remember that this is a fucking three piece band.
Evil: Right. Yeah.
Pollio: That's insane.
Dl: This is a level that rock bands with twice their members don't. It's it's insane. And mix that with the fact that, I mean, right down evil, Zalie Bellamy is a massive, massive ⁓ political collapse, apocalypse, conspiracy theorist dude. Like he's written full albums about specific conspiracy theories and I mean the album drones, which is yeah.
Pollio: It's a three people band.
Evil: Drones.
Dl: i i in a kind of a weird, dark, confused, post super patriotic nine eleven high thing that everything everyone was going through. it's just a fucking fascinating album to me. That's all I have to say about that.
Evil: That's all that that that's all I have to say about that.
Dl: Yeah. ⁓ this album almost so this album is about Big Shocker, the apocalypse. An apox epox epox on your apocalypse. this was originally supposed to be a concept album about insanity, which I would have really loved. because apparently Bellamy was super, super into Dark Side of the Moon at the time, and he wanted to make an album about a mental breakdown.
Pollio: What? I did not get that from listening to this.
Dl: But then the like Iraq war happened and the invasions in 2003, and he got super, super, you know, wait, what the fuck? Like, like a lot of us did. And so he turned it into this, which is kind of this weird apocalyptic Faustian everybody's making deals with the devil. Very, very theatric operatic thing. So
Evil: Uh-huh.
Dl: Rach, you are a pop banger lover. You are also a classical enjoyer. So did these did this kind of cross ver did it annoy you or did you love it?
Pollio: Yeah. Yeah. No, no, I, I really love the integration of stringed instruments into rock music. doesn't, they don't need to be isolated classical music for me to enjoy it. ⁓ when it's done right and done well. And I think this was so very enjoyable.
Dl: You Evil, you you really pushed back a lot on the comparison between OK Computer and this album. You you loved OK Computer.
Evil: Yeah. Yes.
Dl: Studying the two at the same time, did that make this one seem dumber for lack of a better word?
Evil: Dumber no, well maybe. I mean Radiohead, come on. A little more forced, a little more the it's the bombasti that that word was perfect. It's like it's a li I mean a little I would have preferred more nuance in this album.
Pollio: You
Dl: So you don't like assless chaps.
Evil: Hey, okay.
Dl: I know where you're going. Let's get it straight.
Evil: Let's get it straight. All chaps and it's shaps. Come on. It's not chaps, it's chefs. All of ⁓ are assless. They have an ass, it's pants.
Dl: You're right. You're very right.
Evil: I stole that from someone else.
Dl: ⁓ I have a fun story. So producer Paul Reeve has an interview where he's talking about what happened when the string players showed up ⁓ for the orchestral sections of this album. ⁓ st string players are usually very snooty, you know. They and not for bad reason. They're all brilliant musicians that are having to back fucking Aerosmith playing C chords and stuff you know what I mean? Like they're tolerating rock bands, you know?
Evil: I love where this is going. Yeah. Yeah.
Dl: This is their way that they make their money. They they get ready for the session, they sit down and Matt starts playing this fucking like pseudo rock Monov thing and the fucking orchestr the whole orchestra's jaws just fucking drop. Like, ⁓ holy shit. Like this is this is gonna be and that was butterflies and hurricanes. So like the piano solo midway and all that.
Evil: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓
Pollio: Yeah.
Dl: He sits down, he's like, Okay, this is what the song's gonna be like, and all these fucking, you know, first chair violinists and stuff are just like, Who holy fuck, what have we walked into here? I just love I love picturing that. I love like the the uniqueness in two thousand three of a of a somebody in a popular band that could like fucking shred a piano or that sort of thing. I miss Fiona Apple.
Evil: ⁓ wait.
Pollio: Yeah.
Dl: She should come out with another album.
Evil: No.
Pollio: agreed.
Dl: ⁓ Matt Bellamy holds a record if in the ⁓ Absolution Tour two thousand four, he destroyed a hundred and forty guitars during that tour. Yeah.
Pollio: Hmm. That's a lot.
Evil: What That's ⁓ my god, that's more than like the Duke is Dukes of Hazard car.
Dl: Yeah. That is two and a half per show.
Pollio: Jesus!
Dl: Yeah, and these are evil will n appreciate it. These are fucking mansons. These are not we're not talking fucking five hundred dollar guitars. These are kill switch mancons.
Evil: Whoa.
Pollio: hurts a little bit outside of like, you know, I have so much money that I can just trash these guitars, but like.
Evil: That's some rock star dude ⁓
Dl: Agreed. How do you afford your rock and roll lifestyle?
Pollio: It's not... Yeah.
Evil: I'm I'm chas changing some awards and categories.
Dl: ⁓ also they wrote the album in an empty, empty hackney apartment at four AM. They hired out an empty apartment facility. So it's not like, ⁓ we're broke in a but no, it was yeah. ⁓ Wollstenholm actually had like an inflatable mattress he was sleeping on in it while they were recording and everything. So they did record this like pretending that they were
Pollio: Yeah. Empty. Love it. poor.
Dl: still poor, which I fucking like.
Evil: Let's they're they're like LARPing, slumming it.
Pollio: Am I right?
Dl: Yeah. Yeah. And the th I don't think they
Pollio: Let's pretend!
Evil: ⁓ my god. That is the most British thing I've ever heard.
Dl: Right.
Pollio: Some motherfuckers.
Dl: ⁓ and then the last thing which to me also compares to okay computer that I wanted to throw out there, they recorded this whole thing live facing each other. obvious right? Like obviously there were they had to r re record different parts and if Bellamy was playing the piano, he had to come back and play guitar. But
Pollio: That's so cool.
Evil: That blows my mind. Sure, sure.
Pollio: Sure.
Dl: But Rich had a story when he I think it was some interview, I don't remember where I read it, but band recorded it live facing each other in a semicircle. ⁓ Bellamy singing during these. I'm sure they overdubbed the vocals, but I just think that's fucking absurd. And to me, I think that's the reason that you know we're talking about the bombasticness. I think that's the reason it has that specific energy, is it's not people like sitting there, okay, here's my
Evil: Yeah. Right. Let me let me punch in and play yeah, they're actually responding to each other and live music is superior.
Dl: It's a fucking band playing together. Yeah. I love it. ⁓ anything s an anything anything what did you just say?
Pollio: Mm-hmm. What did you say? ⁓
Evil: Live music is superior. It just is.
Dl: Did think he said white music is superior? I did too.
Pollio: I heard white music, yeah.
Evil: Hi five high five. No, live music is superior because you're capturing a moment, a performance in a mo rather than like trying to like perfect something that is better not being perfected.
Pollio: You Right. Yeah.
Dl: I agree. I very much agree. ⁓ anything else that stuck out on this album that you guys want to talk about before we get to awards and categories? Maybe not. ⁓ I think the only thing that I would focus on I d there's a lot of there's so I have so much here and so much that I don't know if I should save or not for ⁓ awards and categories.
Pollio: Don't blow your load all at once, David.
Dl: It I'll here, I'll just do one little piece. One little piece of load blown. ⁓ Wolst Wolstenholm plays bass with a fucking pick. Okay? He's not a finger picker. He plays he plays with a pick. Finger picker. ⁓ this is a very specific choice. And to me, it th this was such a it still is. It's such a no-no but t for
Evil: Yeah. Okay.
Pollio: Okay, finger picker.
Dl: good bass players. Especially for him who's do he's talked about his direct influences are are Les Claypool and Flea and and the super, super fucking hand crazy bass players. But that's what I fucking love is I'm probably gonna talk about this guy a little bit in this episode going into the awards and categories, but the he didn't imitate anybody. He he
Pollio: Right.
Dl: He came up with his own way to play the fucking bass. He came up with his own way to fucking record the bass to amp the bass. Like he he brought something to this that ⁓ I don't think a lot of bass players have done for an album. It's pretty fucking crazy shit. ⁓ that and the the piano to me the piano on Butterflies and Hurricanes is fucking unreal. ⁓ yeah. Let's go to awards and categories. Okay. Okay. ⁓ the David Crosby Met Award, Rolling Stone gave it two out of five stars. And the reason that I'm bringing up Rolling Stone is because, well, you'll see why.
Evil: Let's do it.
Dl: When Radiohead began began to explore electronic textures in Kidday, it fell to upstart UK bands such as Coldplay, Travis, Star Sailor, and Muse to provide the world with disconsolate Pink Floyd worthy guitar rock. So give Muse from the English town of Tigmouth some credit for adopting Radiohead's bombastic approach and adding prog rock style instrumental virtuosity. ⁓ That is Rolling Stone magazine's review calling Radiohead bombastic. Their approach bombastic.
Evil: Mm.
Dl: That's the exact face I made. I don't get it.
Pollio: Was that at the time? Okay.
Dl: Yeah, this was their review. This was Rolling Stone's review of the album. I just wanted to point out how fucking stupid they are. it's too bad the vocalist Matt Bellamy doesn't bring as much ingenuity to his singing ⁓ on brooding quiet turns such as Ruled by Secrecy. It's as if Tom York and Jeff Buckley are the only singers he's ever heard.
Pollio: Mmm.
Dl: Yeah, right?
Pollio: They haven't reviewed this one and rewritten it. Isn't that a classic? Internet's forever.
Dl: No. Well, they might have, but DL found the old one. Motherfuckers, we're holding you to that fire. ⁓ internet's forever, Rach. So answer seventy million Jackson fans can't be wrong. Yeah.
Pollio: Ummm... I'm just going to be aggressive. ⁓ blackout is only good because of the strings. think the strings carry it. ⁓ but the lyrics are quote boring and stupid unquote. That's me. I'm quoting myself.
Dl: That's what she said. Who are you quartering? Okay. ⁓
Pollio: Also, think coming from studying, ⁓ okay, computer and then studying this, lyrics on, okay, computer were so good that I was kind of comparing that kind of description with that writing to this writing. And it's just lacking.
Dl: I have thoughts on that. I get ya. I get ya. ⁓ evil, seventy million Jackson fans, they can't be wrong.
Evil: ⁓ I d this is a very top heavy album. Very top heavy. However,
Pollio: Yeah. Yeah, kinda is, actually.
Evil: Okay, number one, I ⁓ the it in Spotify, which is where I was listening to this primarily, that includes in the the track listing track 12 is Fury, which was actually not on the album. That was a B side to hysteria. I think that improves the album structure, number one. But also I think
Dl: Yeah.
Evil: Even though it is top heavy, some of the stuff on the back end, specifically endlessly Without those it it I I I think some of those tracks, even though I don't think they're the strongest tracks, it displays their versatility better.
Pollio: Sure. Yeah.
Evil: Is that does that make sense? Yeah.
Dl: Top it absolutely makes sense. You might even say it's a Surfer Rosa style album. Hmm.
Evil: Little a little bit. ⁓ I I do ⁓ his Bellamy's vocals when they work they work because of two things. This is this is like a ⁓ addendum to the seventy million Jackson fans thing. They were he has a very specific vocal style that I'm not super in love with sometimes. It's a very croony like ⁓
Pollio: Maybe.
Evil: There are certain songs where that works really well and it's amazing. And then there are tracks where he changes things up and those work really well. One specifically not on this album, on on ⁓ drones. The track Reapers, he sings like prints on that song in certain spl spots, and it's fucking amazing. I could use more change up. I I know this was earlier in their career and he's progressed.
Pollio: Sure.
Evil: And drones came later. I could have used a little bit more change up in his vocal versatility. Here okay, let me let me put a bow on this. I don't think that the musical versatility I don't no, let me say that differently. I don't think that Bellamy's vocal versatility had caught up with their musical versatility at this point. That's my that's my take. There it is.
Dl: Totally.
Pollio: That's a good point. Yeah.
Dl: Even I mean, even you brought up Reapers where he is he's he's rad in that, but it doesn't compare to what he does with the guitar in that song, which is I mean, is that one of the better rock guitar solos of the last it's exactly what I was just gonna say. It's fucking crazy. ⁓ it so seventy million Jackson fans can't be wrong. I'm the it's the opposite for me. I'm I am
Evil: ⁓ That's one of the best rock songs in the last twenty years. Yeah.
Dl: basic bitch on this. I th I'm pretty sure that this is by far their best album. ⁓ I think that most Muse fans agree with that. I think you go on Reddit and like eighty-five percent of the rankings are absolute absolute. I do not buy into the whole old Muse is good Muse thing. ⁓ I do think that they have a lot of good later stuff. ⁓ in fact one of the albums that keeps keeps fucking growing on me is whatever the the kind of neosynth one that they did I don't remember the name of it god damn it simulation theory I that is so my daughter that's one of the regular records that she picks when we're listening to music and f every t it grows on me every fucking time it gets better and better.
Evil: ⁓ simulation theory? Yeah. Really? Huh.
Dl: Rachel, you're dying. ⁓ what's love got to do with it?
Pollio: Literally nothing. ⁓
Dl: Okay.
Evil: Okay.
Pollio: ⁓ I don't know that I expected, I expected this to be worse because all I have heard is the bangers of it, right? Or any bangers of Muse, not necessarily just this album. ⁓ I expected them to be a lot less versatile than they are. Even though they're not super versatile, ⁓ I expected
Dl: Gotcha.
Pollio: very little from them. And so in that way it was a little bit, yeah, just kind of what I've heard already. But yeah, there's a lot more to them than just, and there's only three of them. So there's actually a lot less to them than I thought as well.
Dl: less orchestrals, less y yeah. Yeah. I think Yeah. super I'm super predisposed to loving the i i it was well no no no no fuck that. I didn't ⁓ this was my introduction to Muse when i in in 2003. Like this I I wasn't predisposed at all. I didn't know who the fuck they were and I heard this album and it knocked me on my ass. So it you know, ⁓ I guess you could say coming in to study for this, yeah, but that's cause I D it's a it's a DL's ten out of ten, shut the fuck up. evil, what about you?
Evil: they suffer from Queen syndrome for me. And so I like it less because, and here's why. Hear me out, everybody, Muse fans and Queen fans, because I'm gonna offend both of you. ⁓ here's the thing about both of them as bands is I'm gonna use baseball analogy because yeah, terrible. Jesus Christ. baseball analogy because the Brits will hate that. ⁓
Pollio: I'm gonna shit on all of you.
Dl: Terrible lead singers.
Pollio: That's what.
Dl: Ooh, I love it.
Pollio: I think it's called football.
Evil: Both of them when they
Dl: Cricket?
Pollio: Sorry. It's called...
Evil: I think it's That's hilarious. That was very funny.
Dl: We're drunk.
Pollio: You
Evil: W okay, the if songs are are attempts at bats Both Queen and Muse are hitting a lot of foul balls, maybe some ground balls, but when they connect, for Queen, like I mean, when they connect, it's home run. And for Queen, they're not just getting past the back wall. They're knocking and not even out of the park. They're knocking it into the next fucking county. When Queen connects, they connect. When Muse connects, they're knocking it out of the park. It's like it's not just barely a home run. They're like it's hitting the lights. So because I know what they're capable of, I I think I expect more of them consistently. And this all none of the albums that I've listened to in like in completion, like album start to finish, have ever stood up to what I know they're capable of. And so I think I like them I like the album a little bit less because of that.
Dl: You heard it here first, people. It's a baseball analogy and it wasn't DL. How about that? How about that? The Ozzie Osborne Bathead Award, Evil.
Evil: ⁓ Stockholm Syndrome. Like that riff opens up. It's like this is what makes them different from Radiohead. Radiohead does not have that capability. Not like their transmission is different from Muse's transmission. They don't have those gears.
Dl: Mm. No. Nope. I concur. Rach? Copy paste.
Pollio: Yeah. I said the same thing. Fucker. ⁓ I said Riffin-Stockholm syndrome. I did put a second, which I'm happy about now. ⁓ Also the piano solo in Butterflies and Hurricanes.
Dl: Yeah. Okay. Here's my Bathead Award. Let me get my notes out here. All right, let me set a scene. It's raining. It's been raining all day. It's Glastonbury 2004. Very similar to Radioheads. Pyramid stage. Same stage. Muse is closing the festival. Oasis Headline Friday. Paul McCartney Headline Saturday. And they're coming on after James Brown, where they watch him and they are just fucking like. We're what the fuck like we're done. Like what do we do? What the fuck are we like we're how do you how do you follow fucking James Brown? Well, they played the best gig of their lives and they all knew it. Crowd was fucking immense. ⁓ the they kick in with hysteria and j the entire crowd is just fucking ape shit. what makes it he to this day they say that it's the best show that they'll ever play.
Evil: Yeah, how do you follow James Brown?
Dl: Don Ha Dom Howard, the guitar the drummer, his dad was in the crowd watching, has a heart attack at the end of that show and dies. Yeah. How fucking insane is that? So that is a that's about as crazy of a concert story as you're going to Yeah.
Evil: Holy fuck They blighted him with science.
Dl: Like his dad his dad basically was like, I just saw that my son just did the coolest thing ever. ⁓ I'm good. I don't need to yep, that's all I needed in this life. Fucking rad. Rachel DMX Mark Lanigan award.
Evil: Mm.
Pollio: Yeah. killing your own father at a concert, I think is pretty rock and roll. That's what my favorite is.
Dl: that was you almost got a spit take. Would've been really bad all over my computer. ⁓ the it's three fucking people. I just it's three people. I can't it's I'm not gonna say more than that. It's fucking three people doing this.
Evil: ⁓ my god. Yeah.
Pollio: So close. Okay.
Evil: Yeah.
Dl: It's fucking crazy. And if you go if you watch their fucking concerts, you watch them in Wembley, ⁓ the Olympic, that fucking Olympic show, Jesus fucking Christ. And I know everybody, you know, well, overdubs and backtracks and this and that. You watch those and you tell me they're not fucking playing and singing. They're playing and singing, and they're really fucking good at it. ⁓ evil.
Pollio: Yeah.
Evil: Yeah, their live shows are nuts. How many guitars did he destroy on that tour? Yeah, that's it. That's yeah a hundred and forty. Yeah, that's whatever yeah. That's the right answer.
Dl: Hundred and forty. Two or was it two forty?
Pollio: Two per concert, that's all that matters. It's a lot.
Dl: Two and a half a show. Yeah.
Pollio: I don't know, mine was pretty good.
Dl: Evil evil don't don't d no backpats. ⁓ evil, overrated, underrated, properly rated.
Evil: Yeah, it was pr yes, it was. ⁓ in its time properly but probably slightly underrated in the US. Currently underrated critically but loved by the fans.
Dl: Yeah. Yeah. I I would say properly rated at the time, but then I do think Muse has really, really been punched by the look, their their music is just not as good as it used to be. But they do still have good music. ⁓ but I think they've really, really w
Evil: Yeah. Yeah.
Dl: The old muse is good news stuff. It's I don't agree with it, but it's legit. ⁓ and so I think underrated because people don't like muse as much as they once did. ⁓ Rach?
Pollio: so not all muse is good muse.
Dl: No muse is good muse.
Pollio: So funny. ⁓ The alcohol helps though. I want to say... ⁓
Dl: Mm-hmm.
Pollio: properly rated in, in its time by critics and by people and probably not properly rated anymore. Because again, they're starting to suck. Sorry. They're starting, they're starting to suck a little bit.
Dl: Okay. Hey. Their last album was fucking terrible. It was so bad. It was so bad. For real. Yeah. They had one song that was just rocked your face off and the rest of that album was what the fuck? What was that? They had like a what was the Halloween song or something? Jesus. That's that was a crazy fucking album. Rachel Influences and Influences.
Evil: It was not good. It was very not good.
Pollio: Try harder. Do you know they're listening to this right now? I mean, we covered ⁓ what Queen rocked Bond off. I also had Dream Theater on there and then that's kind of where it ended. Thank you. I do OK. But yeah.
Evil: That's a great pick. Wow.
Dl: Wow, wow, wow. Wow. ⁓ yeah, I don't have anything that we haven't already talked about. Chopin, like, you know, ⁓ I don't know. I think Bellamy is a b he's a bit of an underrated guitar player. I think he's he does a lot of the same like melodic stuff that a lot of the old sixties and seventies guitar players did and I love that. You can tell he's listened to a lot of like Hendrix and shit.
Evil: Yeah.
Dl: The only influency that I would throw in there, because I don't hear that many influences of Muse, is ⁓ Biffy Clyro. I hear l Biffy Clyro does a lot of that super kind of frantic, bombastic stuff, and I love it. He's bombastic. It's a fantasti ⁓ evil.
Evil: Yeah.
Pollio: Bombastic. Take a drink every time David says bombastic.
Evil: th ⁓ same Ze Queen Radiohead Rach Monadov. Also the Tom Morello
Dl: Evil, when you listen to this, would you say that you get your Rach Moninoffs?
Evil: Mon and offs. ⁓ yes.
Pollio: It's like the perfect amount of alcohol in all of her blood right now. Just fun enough.
Dl: Mm-hmm.
Evil: That's hysterical. So in in Rage Against Machine and Audio Slave, when Tom Morello and Tom ⁓ Timmy see Tim Comeford like lock into a groove, I hear that at times. Like with the that's that metal adjacent stuff that happens. ⁓ so that's a a a unique
Dl: We go this is finale caliber. Love that. I love it.
Evil: influence. ⁓ also ⁓ Rich Costley mixed renegades ⁓ which was a rage album yeah so a little tie-in there ⁓ influences I don't like there's not a lot of bands like these guys like you know so I don't I in terms of influencees I don't know like they're ⁓ interesting crew
Dl: Really? Good. Y you're good, you No. Totally agree. Totally agree. Think so too.
Pollio: Yeah.
Evil: I think more kids need to I would like to hear some influences.
Dl: The totally. Tot like I w I guess. I want new bands, I want young kids coming out doing this sort of shit. Ne c coming out with a fucking piano and Yeah. Getting their Rach Modenoffs. ⁓ evil.
Evil: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, and and fucking to be the ⁓ I'm gonna soapbox time. Musical artists, don't fucking be afraid of being over the top and bombastic. Like swing for the fences. Like do some crazy shit. Get like
Dl: In fact, you know, that's a great d DMX Mark Glanigan is Bellamy's always been that and he's never given a fuck. He's he's always been he's been that frontman flamboyant. Yeah.
Evil: Yeah. Go for it. I mean there's like the ⁓ there's a lineage of like just wild, like over the top. I mean, love ⁓ or hate him. All of these like the James Browns, like what would they like how do we follow James Brown? David Lee Roth, fucking Liberace, Elvis, like just fucking swing for the fences, kids. It's fun. There's there's gold in them our hills.
Dl: Yeah. Yeah. I and de Poitin I very much agree.
Evil: Pss ⁓ Angie Depotine, ⁓ what's the the ⁓ Foxy Shazam, like love ⁓ or hate ⁓ they they do it, man. Come on.
Dl: Yes. Hey. Biggest black ass I've ever seen. Evil, never mind the Bullocks Award. Song's amazing. I'll go. I'm my answer to this is yes. I think Origin of Symmetry kind of makes the argument because it's raw or it's more aggressive. The question isn't what what's my favorite? It's which album is the best. And honest, I really don't even think it's close. I think this is their best album by far. ⁓ Absolution is where everything that they were reaching for, they got.
Evil: ⁓ my god. ⁓
Dl: Like simultaneously, every member of the band, everything that they were doing, the production, classical architecture, politics, the themes of the album. evil, what do you think?
Evil: I I think you're right. And even though maybe this isn't my most favorite album of theirs, I think it's the most even. ⁓ I think Origin of Symmetry might have been more groundbreaking and Black Holes was that's that's the album that I like the most, if I were to pick a favorite. But
Dl: Mm. Great album.
Evil: Like going back to the Queen comparison, I personally think a kind of magic is Queen's best album overall. And yeah, it has big hits, but it doesn't have the hits. Like, that's okay. So I I think maybe there is an argument to be made that this is their best album.
Dl: Okay. Nope. Rachel
Evil: I don't know if it's the the is it close? I don't know about that part. I'm not a big I don't feel like I am well listened enough in the Muse verse to make that that call.
Dl: Qualified to
Pollio: you
Dl: What do you think, Sniffles?
Pollio: Hmm.
Dl: Don't cur. Okay, but what about the no? Dude, seriously, award rage.
Pollio: this one, I went back to classic in my opinion, ⁓ how to lure people in. And I just went with hysteria. That's a good, that's a good one to get people hooked.
Dl: Mm. Yeah, ⁓ I d I don't I picked hysteria. And not because it's the most representative track. ⁓ i in some ways I think it's the least. ⁓ but it is the track Spoilers, whatever. ⁓ because I'm gonna tell people if you're only gonna listen to one fucking muse song, you should probably fucking listen to hysteria. ⁓ evil.
Pollio: Yeah.
Evil: I I said it earlier. When like lots of ground balls, lots of strikes, some foul balls here and there, but when they fucking connect, it's it's not just over the the back wall home run where is is the outfielder gonna jump and catch it? No, it's fucking gone and that is hysteria.
Dl: Hit by pitch. Yeah. So my dog's name is Zanino. My dog is named after a catcher for the Seattle Mariners named Mike Zanino. He's one of my favorite players of all time because well, he would because he would try to fight batters, which I loved. But also, there were three things that he would do when he was up to bat. He would get hit by pitches all the fucking time, which is if you know baseball, you know it's the fucking ballsiest thing ever because you're sacrificing Getting hit by a hundred mile an hour hardball. ⁓ and he would strike out, he would just swing the fuck out of everything, and then he would hit fucking bombs. He would hit the farthest home runs that any Mariners ever hit, including Ken Griffey Jr. ⁓ so we'll call it ⁓ Ken, we'll call it a Mike Zanino track.
Evil: Right. Yeah. A thousand percent.
Dl: Let's talk baseball. Do you guys wanna talk baseball for a while?
Pollio: ⁓ my gosh, baseball.
Dl: ⁓ Evil, the John Popper Best Hook Award.
Evil: I think I'm I'm I'm gonna wanna pick like good a guitar line or something like that, but I have other I have those plugged into other places. I'm gonna say the chorus for Time Is Running Out. That's probably the most sing along chorus on the album.
Dl: It's great. It really is. ⁓ Rach.
Pollio: I said the guitar on hysteria. I picked a guitar. Or a melon.
Dl: On hysteria. It's very g it's good. ⁓ I said the chorus of Stockholm Syndrome. ⁓ this is the last time I abandon you. it's everything that Muse can do that no one else really can. And they do it perfectly. Like like Queen, it's very close to a Queen type of thing, but even Queen didn't sound Queen didn't sound fucking sinister. This sounds a little bit sinister. Like
Pollio: Yeah, it's good.
Evil: Ooh.
Pollio: I like that we all pick different aspects.
Evil: Yeah. True. Yeah.
Dl: This this sounds a little bit end of the world. And Queen I mean, Queen was just too Good to sound like that. ⁓ not good that's the d I that's a terrible fucking sentence. ⁓ yeah, good. Cause I don't. ⁓ the the John Prime Best Lyric Award, ⁓ Rachel, our lyric face head, you loved it.
Evil: Yeah. I know what you mean. ⁓ I know what you mean.
Pollio: Yeah. I have two. One from the small print was, ⁓ I'm the priest God never paid.
Dl: Ooh, I like that. I like it.
Pollio: It's just interesting when what I, I liked in its simplicity and it was a very, we out of the woods yet? Which I think that you would appreciate it. It's making the same mistakes again, making the same mistakes again, is that the lyrics repeated. And I was like, that's clever. I like it.
Dl: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's great. You're clever. ⁓ I for me it's much less about his lyrics as it is his delivery. I I just talked about the the Stockholm syndrome that this is the last time I abandon you. the the towards the end of ⁓ time is running out, the the you will suck the life out of me s stuff. I just his delivery is fucking fantastic. ⁓ evil.
Evil: Mm-hmm. in butterflies and hurricanes. I don't know why this one stuck out to me. ⁓ change everything you are and everything you were. That second the second tag was like ⁓ that
Dl: W that song is about joining the military, right? Like to that's how it reads to me. Like, yeah. I've it I think it's fucking awesome. Evil is.
Evil: Yeah, I think so. The everything you were apart was like that was I just
Dl: Evil, your man, your myth, your legend, the Eddie Van Halen Award.
Evil: And I'm piss picking a bass part. I'm gonna piss a bass part. It yeah, I need ⁓ I need to go refill my drink. It's the bass line and hysteria. That is the most memorable thing on the album for me. And the tone like you going into talking about how him playing with the pick and doing his own thing and just the tone involved and my god.
Dl: You should piss it, not pick it.
Pollio: Nice. You Yeah.
Evil: It is
Dl: So for all you bass heads that have just been dying for this to come, that's what she said. ⁓ three amp rigging parallel signaling, which again, this is a this is a fucking Wollstoneholm thing. ⁓ he had three amps playing. He had a clean amp, he had a I think like a a a ⁓ a big muff on another amp, and then some weird fucking Japanese distortion pedal amp and he was playing through those with a signal processor. Like he the amount of setup that he did that he does for his rig consistently is crazy. Wollston Holmes bass through this entire album is just it's a technical masterpiece. It's consistent. ⁓ he's
Evil: Nuts.
Dl: It's just fucking yeah. He deserves he deserves the Eddie Van Halen Award. Surfer rosa award, I would agree. is it top heavy? It c it might be. ⁓ the but I do think that the back album is kind of where it it earns its depth. So it's a little bit surfer rosa. I do agree that I'm gonna prefer a lot of the songs on the front. I also agree with Evil that I think having Fury towards the back it adds a lot. I think Fury is we'll we'll talk about it. ⁓ Evil, what about you?
Evil: The same's. ⁓ it is top heavy. I think Fury, which is Hysteria's B side, when it was released as a single, at the spot it's in, which is right after the small print. Spoiler alert, there's something else. I'll another answer was influenced by that being included in the version that I listened to. it just it makes it more interesting.
Dl: I agree. Rach?
Pollio: All the same. Copy paste.
Dl: All the same. Okay, but what's the worst song on the album, Rachel? What's the time of your life award?
Pollio: Ooh. I felt like, ⁓ endlessly was the least essential song on the album. I don't know that it was the worst. And I don't think it's, there's not one that stood out as far as this doesn't belong or it's bad. I guess.
Dl: Hmm mm. I mean it's not the worst. Yeah, I agree. I I said falling away with you. the one thing that d that I was saving for this for the sequencing, because falling away it's a genuine ballad, and it's restrained and it's it's pretty. There is too much for me on this album of ⁓ of them purposefully let's do hyper loud, let's do super soft, let's do hyper loud next song super slow.
Pollio: Yeah.
Dl: It's too much. It's like I love when bands kind of try to do that a little bit, but it's like every other song. And falling away with you is the first time that it really I just don't it it just doesn't hit me right. ⁓ what about you, Evil?
Evil: Okay. Subtract Fury and I have a harder time answering this. Put Fury in, and then the song that comes right after it, which I actually really like and is in my wheelhouse as an album.
Dl: So endlessly.
Pollio: endlessly.
Evil: ⁓ s I'm sorry. The song that came right before it.
Pollio: ⁓ small print.
Dl: ⁓ what?
Evil: Yeah. Which by itself, the small print, is very much an evil version of what a muse song should be.
Dl: Yeah, damn it.
Pollio: That was gonna be a, yeah.
Dl: Well you fucking got me.
Evil: But however, if you put f if you put Fury on the album, then that one becomes redundant on the album for me. It's it's not bad, it's the least special now all the sudden.
Dl: Ha ha ha.
Pollio: Okay.
Dl: Okay. All right, okay, all right, all right.
Evil: But I I mean, if I w here's the thing, if I wanna listen to a mused song, that's gonna be in my list of songs I wanna listen to.
Dl: Hmm.
Pollio: Okay.
Evil: So similar to the the radio head thing with with ⁓ electioneering. It I I I think it fits i It's just it it it feels more like a B side.
Dl: Interesting. I like the ⁓ I like the electioneering take, which every time I say electioneering, I feel like I'm saying the wrong word. I feel like I'm supposed to be saying engineering or election year or but I'm not. Rach, what are the three best songs on Absolution by the band Muse?
Evil: Then Fury does. Then Fury does. That's exactly what it is. Yeah. I had to think about it little bit. Yeah.
Pollio: ⁓ number three, ⁓ I picked butterflies and hurricanes. It's beautiful. It's ambitious. It's lovely. Number two, hysteria. That's true. ⁓ hysteria, fabulous baseline. Amazing. And number one, because it is.
Dl: Butterflies and hurricane. It's amazing. Talking me.
Pollio: All of the things it is heavy. is dramatic. It's emotional. ⁓ it's unhinged. has some classical piano. ⁓ I picked Stockholm syndrome.
Dl: It's a fucking great song.
Pollio: Yeah, it is.
Dl: It's it's great. ⁓ I'm gonna go next. I'm I'm really intrigued by what Evil's favorite songs are because I really thought I had them pegged, and I don't at all on this. ⁓ peggings later. I I had some honorable mentions. I love Fury, but I'm not counting it because like we've already talked about it. Technically, not even part of it. ⁓ Ruled by Secrecy. I love my number three is Apocalypse.
Evil: That's fine.
Pollio: Gross. It's not on the album.
Dl: Please. you were talking about I I love the classical architecture songs. And that piano figure, that is that is the most Rach Mon and off of the of the album. It's so fucking you know piano training minks rock band. And I love that. My number two, I'll make up for I was very wrong with evil, but my number two is the small print. ⁓ this is where the album
Evil: Yeah.
Dl: Takes a breath from its sophistication. It's just we need to go hard, we need to go fast. That's what she said. yes. I just I love this this track doesn't ask you to think, it just hits. And I love that. my number one, it's one of the best rock songs of the last 25 years. ⁓ not mused ever. And it is Wollstenholm making a generation of bass players reconsider.
Evil: Yeah.
Pollio: Yeah.
Evil: Yeah.
Dl: what they're doing with their instrument. ⁓ it's it's technical compositional perfection and hysteria is you just can't fuck with it. ⁓ evil, top three.
Evil: ⁓ my gosh. ⁓ I have an honorable mention because I think it is brilliant and that's butterflies and hurricanes. ⁓ my three is time is running out. My two my two is probably the most evil track on the album, and that's Stockholm Syndrome, but hysteria is to your point it's knocked out of the park a hundred percent.
Pollio: Yeah.
Dl: So good. So good. I just realized you're you're totally right. And of course you are because you're agreeing with me. I just realized time is running out is not was not on Rachel's top three. That's very surprising. It does God that song rocks though. After the first chorus when the guitar di ⁓ god, it's good. Evil, who won the album?
Evil: I know.
Pollio: What the hell?
Evil: It does. I ⁓ you you said way more about it than I ever could and I think it's Wilson Holmes bass tone won this album.
Dl: You don't think. You know it. Bill
Evil: Yeah. I ⁓ a a a a honorable mention is is Rick Cosley, his production made them sound huge. E ⁓ it yeah.
Dl: Yep. Yeah. I d yeah. I mean Bellamy wrote the songs and he I think his foundation is the reason it is what it is. Not and just his guitar work is extraordinary. But Wollstenholm i he's just this is a fucking clinic. This is an absolute clinic. ⁓ and it's the thing that makes it it takes it from a very sophisticated guitar orchestral album to One of the better three man band albums you're gonna hear. ⁓ Rach, who won the album?
Evil: Timeless. Yeah.
Pollio: ⁓ you're going to get real mad. ⁓ Stephanie Meyer, Stephanie Meyer has made so much fucking money off of muse from being inspired from their fucking music. She is worth like $120 million.
Dl: Why I ⁓
Evil: Ha ha ha.
Dl: It's pretty good.
Evil: That's hilarious.
Pollio: for writing some real shitty vampire erotica. Yeah, she went to BYUI, or BYU, not BYUI, BYU. Boom, one of Brigham Young schools.
Dl: Is she Mormon?
Evil: ⁓
Dl: Yeah, we like Rachel rate the album.
Pollio: I'm gonna go with an 8.5 out of 10. Yeah. There's a lot on there that I really, really liked. And like 15 % of it where I was like, I don't know if that's working or we did that already on that song. Can we try something new? Yeah.
Dl: That's d better than I thought you'd give. I understand. I do. ⁓ evil rate this album.
Evil: ⁓ man. the here's the thing is like Queen, they're the the bubba bangers. How many Bs is that? Seven or eight? Are in the stratosphere. They're like 12 out of 10s. But overall, I'm just not like they're not an album band for me. And
Pollio: That's kind of fair, actually.
Evil: Part of it is his vocal delivery grates on me in certain situations.
Dl: I c I would have thought that, honestly.
Evil: I i if I'm and it was it was very specifically when I was out walking the dogs and I'm listening to this album, I'm like, I'm like, shut the fuck up. Like I can't deal with his vocal delivery in that situation. Sitting listening to it actively, like studying with the lyrics up, doesn't bother me. But in that scenario, like background listening kind of bugs me a little bit. And I'm giving it exact same as Rachel as an album at 8.5.
Pollio: Fair. Genius.
Dl: Very fair. Very fair. I I think that Absolution, I do think it's a great album. And I don't think it's I don't think I think there's a couple albums that Muse did that doesn't make them a greatest hits. And this is the the biggest one. It's complete, it's fully realized. ⁓ it does specific things at the highest level that you're gonna hear. I was stealing most of it from evil. The songs that are good on this are so fucking good. They are so fucking good. ⁓ and I've been going back and forth on this album. This is a real this is one of those situations I love that is a real deals ten out of ten that I've been going for 20 years thinking it's a 10 out of 10. It's not. It's I'm giving it a 9.1. I do, I just think there's repetition.
Pollio: So good.
Dl: And I do think there's about seven minutes of slog on this album. ⁓ it's I I did a poll on Instagram and I I don't remember how many people voted, but it was like I think like three people gave it a ten said it's a ten out of ten. A like twenty people said it was really close. And then ⁓ like four people said Muse sucks. Rachel s snickering.
Evil: Ha ha ha ha ha.
Pollio: I voted.
Dl: I I completely agree with the mass. I think this is so close, but it is not a ten out of ten. It is not. and that surprises me because that means that Muse does not have a ten out of ten and I don't think they gonna.
Pollio: Kudos.
Evil: Yeah
Dl: Who knows? Maybe you know, h maybe like a fucking sixty year old Bellamy is gonna write like a crazy fucking
Pollio: Yeah.
Evil: I could he's it's in him.
Dl: That's what she said. Hey, absolute two thousand three evil's got something to say.
Evil: ⁓ I Before we end, I have a listener question.
Pollio: get it?
Dl: ⁓ I didn't do any listener questions. Fuck DL. What a piece of fucking shit. Yeah, do something in your life.
Evil: And it's I know. That's why I'm like, well I better I better do something here in these two episodes that we just recorded. this is gonna be a multi parter. So
Pollio: You loser. Mmm.
Dl: Good, cause I can post it twice.
Evil: Okay. So here here's what it is. If you could sacrifice the life of Eddie Vedder to bring back someone else, who would it be? Would it be no no no and I'm there's constraints. It's gotta be one of three other grunge era singers who have passed.
Dl: Yes, I would.
Pollio: ⁓
Dl: Damn it.
Evil: Which one? Now, okay, here's the part two. Here's the thing, is you have to actually kill Eddie Vetter yourself with a club. But you can bring back all yes. Yeah, with you have to actually go do it. You gotta go murder this guy. Nope. Well, if if it's at well, it's up to you. It's ⁓ do you do it the right way? But you have to actually be the one that that that does it. However, that will bring back all three.
Dl: ⁓ so you're adding a bonus? You're to you're
Pollio: With a club? I don't have the upper body strength for that.
Dl: Do I get away with it?
Pollio: What the hell?
Dl: ⁓ then
Pollio: You can't get away with anything these days.
Dl: I don't think that exists anymore, yeah.
Evil: Do you do it? Do you take the risk?
Dl: Wait, what
Pollio: from the trolley problem.
Evil: Okay, s situation one, you you just sacrifice Eddie Vetter, no consequences to you. It will bring back one of the three. Which one do you bring back? Situation two, you gotta take the club and go beat this guy to death. You might get caught, but it will bring back all three. Do you do it? Do you take the risk?
Dl: So I am so so scared of prison that there is no way I would ever do that. I may look tough. the question one is a great question because my golden god is Lane Staley, but two things, two things. Number one, it's the it's the same as Kirk Cobain.
Evil: Yeah, you'd be a hero in there though.
Pollio: Okay. ⁓
Evil: Ha ha ha ha
Dl: I don't want the extension of the career to see them fuck it up. And and the second thing is if there was a band that I would have wanted to see what they could have done, it's fucking Mother Love Bone with Andrew Wood. So I'm I'm bringing back Andrew Wood.
Evil: Yeah. ⁓ I didn't even yeah, I didn't say names on purpose, but I didn't even consider that.
Dl: ⁓ who who were the th ⁓ Cornell, Staley and Cobain is who you were thinking of, huh?
Evil: And I'm glad I didn't say names because now you get a pick. Because I mean, someone might be like, I want Mark Lanigan to record again.
Dl: Yeah, I would have gone Andrew Wood. ⁓ for fuck's sake. I forgot about my clan again. Thanks for bringing this fucking an hour and twenty minutes in, Evil. I appreciate that. Do you guys have another hour to talk about this? Rachel wants to so bad. Like, OMG, she's That's such a good question. Listeners, I mean, answer it. We're g that's gonna be a big one. We're gonna get a lot of people chiming in on that. You gotta lay off the coke, Rach. ⁓
Pollio: I do. I know.
Dl: VerseCourseverse.com at versecourseverse pod. Tell your friends. Go do the newsletter. ⁓ if you haven't heard the okay computer episode, go back and listen to it. Join us next week. We are starting a two-parter. You know, we've had DLs 10 out of 10s. You guys are fucking sick of DLS 10 out of 10s. What about evil? Evil's got 10 out of 10s. Should we listen to a I feel like we should listen to a couple of those. Give those a chance. See how those work. We're starting that next week. ⁓
Pollio: ⁓ Does he?
Evil: I think you should.
Dl: They were fun vinyl that I now own, that one of them I have since rocked out to, but I'm not telling you which one 'cause that will spoil the next two episodes. I definitely think one of the albums he gave me was way better than the other one. ⁓ thank you. Rach, I hope that you recover.
Evil: That's fair. That's fair.
Pollio: Lots of
Evil: You picked the right one.
Pollio: Thanks. Same.
Dl: D what do you want to do after this? You wanna party? Shall we? All right.
Pollio: ⁓ yeah, let's go get lit. Let's go get some Flonase and just fuck some shit up.
Dl: What hey, what's the the lavender nose spray that I got methed out on that one time? ⁓ I'll find it for you, Rach, don't worry. evil
Pollio: Okay, text me. Yeah, that would be amazing.
Evil: I'm gonna do an ever clear netty pot. Let's go. Let's fucking go.
Pollio: God, this Saturday has turned out to be a good one.
Dl: ⁓ that's a good one. ⁓ evil, let me know what you do tonight. ⁓ and and listen to something good. ⁓ go buy okay computer and play it play the record. ⁓ that's my that's that's one of that's one of my favorite revelations of this whole podcast so far is evil as buying a radio head record. That's when you know that we've we've made it, ladies and gentlemen. ⁓ we love ya. Hope you understand our takes. Hope you agree with half of them.
Evil: Ha ha I I have to. I have to get it at this point.
Pollio: You could probably find it for like two bucks.
Evil: Yeah. Yeah. Yep.
Pollio: Ha
Dl: ⁓ good night and good luck. We did it.