Absolution (album)

Absolution is the third studio album by the English rock band Muse, released on 22 September 2003 through Taste Media. It was produced by Muse and Rich Costey, with additional production by John Cornfield and Paul Reeve.

Most of the album was recorded at Grouse Lodge in County Westmeath, Ireland, with additional sessions at AIR Studios and Livingston Recording Studios in London and Cello Studios in Los Angeles. Costey wanted to give Muse a bigger, more aggressive sound, and Absolution is more polished and direct than their previous albums. It incorporates classical influences, with orchestra on tracks such as "Butterflies and Hurricanes" and "Blackout", and apocalyptic lyrical themes. Muse used effects, synthesisers and software to process many tracks.

Absolution reached number one on the UK Albums Chart. It also produced Muse's first top-ten single, "Time Is Running Out", which reached number 8 on the UK Singles Chart. As of 2018, Absolution had sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide. A 20th-anniversary reissue with bonus tracks was released in 2023.

Background
Muse set aside time to develop their third album, as their previous recording sessions had been rushed. In early 2002, they rented a country house outside Brighton for six months to write material. During this period, they were dropped by their American record label, Maverick. According to the System of a Down vocalist, Serj Tankian, he attempted to sign Muse to his label, Serjical Strike, but Maverick asked for half a million dollars to release them from their contract and his attempts to have Sony provide the money failed.

Muse decided to focus on Europe, and embarked on the final leg of their tour for their previous album, Origin of Symmetry, playing the future Absolution songs "Hysteria" and "The Small Print".  After the tour, Muse resumed writing and recording demos in an unused commercial loft in Hackney, London. 

Recording
Muse began recording in late 2002 with the producers John Cornfield and Paul Reed at Air Studios, London, where they recorded "Butterflies and Hurricanes" and "Blackout". They were joined later by the American producer Rich Costey, who produced the rest of the album. Costey had worked with acts Muse admired, including Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, and wanted to help them find a bigger, more aggressive sound. According to Costey, Muse wanted to sound like a "colossal, dynamic, epic and powerful rock band".

Muse and Costey returned to Air in late 2002 to work on songs including "Hysteria" and "Stockholm Syndrome". The songwriter, Matt Bellamy, restructured "Hysteria" after feedback from Costey. For "Stockholm Syndrome", Costey vocodered Bellamy's guitar with a Nord modular synthesiser, creating "hollow, white noisey" sound.  Muse and Costey regrouped in early 2003 for 10 days at Livingston Recording Studios, London, completing the recordings they had made at Air. They then moved to Grouse Lodge, a residential recording studio in County Westmeath, Ireland, where most of the album was recorded.

The Grouse Lodge sessions were marred by Muse's strained relationship with their record company. When Muse's co-manager arrived to review their progress, they found him disruptive and threw them out of the studio. They also became involved in a lawsuit with their production company. Bellamy said later that "there was a genuine sense of impending doom for the band".  The bassist, Chris Wolstenholme, an alcoholic, drank extensively during the sessions. 

To create basic tracks, Muse recorded together live, then focused on overdubs. Costey minimised editing to preserve the "human touch" and avoid an artificial result. He added little reverb, preferring to use the natural ambience recorded by the microphones. Bellamy used custom Manson guitars and Marshall and Diezel amps. Wolstenholme split his signal into three Marshall amps, one clean and two distorted, and blended the results. Muse and Costey used the sound design system Kyma to process tracks including "Time is Running Out", "Hysteria" and "Apocalypse Please". Bellamy said Kyma added an "outrageously hi-fi and bright and futuristic sound"; Costey described it as "the sound of the record". 

The group experimented with drum sounds, using a number of microphones. For the introduction to "Apocalypse Please", they recorded two kick drums in the Grouse Lodge swimming pool. They also recorded Wolstenholme diving into the pool, which was used in the bridge of "Thoughts of a Dying Atheist". For "Ruled By Secrecy", they recorded a drum take in the courtyard outdoors, hoping to capture an unusual ambience, but discarded the results. On "Falling Away With You", Costey captured the sound of Bellamy's fingers on the guitar strings to create an intimate feeling.

For "Sing for Absolution", Muse used prepared piano, laying metal objects such as nails and guitar strings on the piano strings. They also processed the piano with a pitch-shifting DigiTech Whammy pedal and an Echloplex delay effect. For "Ruled By Secrecy", they blended piano and a Yamaha CP-80 electric piano. Costey recorded Bellamy's left and right-hand parts separately, and ran them through guitar amps and an Echoplex. "Time is Running Out" was the most difficult song to record; Muse spent hours working on the bass sound for the introduction, processing Wolstenholme's bass with multiple effects. Eventually, they used a Roland synthesiser played through a Marshall amp. 

"Endlessly" was the last song completed. Muse struggled to improve on the simplicity of Bellamy's demo, recorded with a piano and a four-to-the-floor drum machine rhythm. Eventually, they used lighter, jazzier drumming and an old Hammond organ. Later in 2003, Muse and Costey spent three weeks in Cello Studios, Los Angeles. They recorded more overdubs, including marching sounds that open the album, and the final version of "Endlessly", and mixed the album.  They also attracted interest from American labels and signed a contract with Warner Records. 

Music and lyrics
Absolution is an alternative rock, progressive rock, hard rock, and art rock album. It features a more polished and direct sound than Muse's previous albums. In 2020, Wolstenholme described it as a continuation of their second album, Origin of Symmetry (2001): "We knew what we wanted to do, and we'd found our feet a little bit, and we felt comfortable with what we did."

Bellamy wrote most of the songs on piano, including guitar-based songs such as "Stockholm Syndrome". For "Butterflies and Hurricanes", he sought to create a heavy rock song using classical piano instead of guitar, with a "mechanical paradiddle thing all the way through". He was inspired by the "intensive, repetitive" piano compositions of Terry Riley, such as "In C". "Blackout" uses mandolin and orchestra.

The lyrics incorporate themes of fear, mistrust, personal achievement and joy, and a general theme of "things coming to an end". The beginning of the Iraq War influenced the songwriting, and Bellamy said that the lyrics for "Apocalypse Please" followed naturally from the "epic and in-your-face" chord progression. The end of Muse's relationship with their American label, Maverick, also influenced the lyrics.  Bellamy became interested in conspiracy theories connected to subjects involving the September 11 attacks, which he described as "good subject matter" for songwriting. He later disavowed conspiracy theories as dangerous.  

Bellamy said that absolution was "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 think it's just suggesting that the act of making music is a way of understanding things."

Artwork
Absolution is one of two Muse albums (alongside Black Holes and Revelations) to feature artwork by Storm Thorgerson. The ambiguous falling/floating image is similar to the René Magritte painting Golconda. According to Howard, the artwork could be interpreted as depicting people either leaving or descending to Earth.

Release and promotion
Absolution was released on 22 September 2003 on CD and double vinyl. The first single, "Stockholm Syndrome", was released as a download and was downloaded more than 20,000 times. Because of contractual obligations, Muse could not allow it to be downloaded free, so the fee was set at $0.99 in the US. On tour for Absolution, Muse performed in arenas for the first time and headlined Glastonbury Festival in 2004. The tour ended with two sold-out nights at Earls Court, London.  Muse also toured the United States, playing in small clubs. 

Critical reception
On Metacritic, Absolution has a score of 72 of 100 based on 16 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Alternative Press wrote that its "chaotic choruses feel like the triumphant culmination of some earth-shattering undertaking", while Andrew Future of Drowned in Sound called it "a truly elemental opus". Tyler Fisher of Sputnikmusic felt that Absolution was Muse's most consistent album to date and that it perfected their sound, writing that it "expands on newer sounds and improves on others". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote: "Muse sound like a band who are at the top of their game. Their confidence carries you through the album's excesses." Rob Kemp of Rolling Stone was less enthusiastic, drawing Radiohead comparisons and concluding that Bellamy "doesn't bring as much ingenuity to his singing".

Absolution was Muse's first album to chart in the US, and is credited with establishing their fan base there. It was the second Muse album released in the US, after a dispute with Maverick Records had canceled the release of Origin of Symmetry there. Absolution reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart and No. 107 on the Billboard 200. It was certified gold in March 2007, becoming Muse's first album to be certified in the US. "Time Is Running Out" became Muse's first top-10 single on the UK Singles Chart and was certified gold in the US.

Legacy
In 2005, Absolution was ranked number 345 in the Rock Hard book The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. In 2009, Q readers voted it the 23rd-best British album, and in 2009, Kerrang! readers voted it the second-best album of the century so far.

A remastered 20th-anniversary reissue, Absolution XX Anniversary, featuring bonus tracks, live recordings and demos, was released on 17 November 2023. Clash wrote that the reissue was not as "neatly constructed or unique" as the 2021 Origin of Symmetry reissue, with "largely dispensable" bonus material, but praised the "punchier, cleaner" remaster.

Personnel
Personnel adapted from Absolution liner notes

Muse
 * Matthew Bellamy – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards, programming, string arrangements, production
 * Chris Wolstenholme – bass, backing vocals, production
 * Dominic Howard – drums, programming, percussion, production

Production
 * Dennis Smith, Safta Jaffery – executive production
 * Rich Costey – production, mixing, engineering, additional production on "Blackout" and "Butterflies and Hurricanes"
 * Wally Gagel – engineering, digital engineering, additional production on "Butterflies and Hurricanes"
 * Paul Reeve – production and backing vocals on "Blackout" and "Butterflies and Hurricanes", vocal samples on "Intro"
 * John Cornfield – production and engineering on "Blackout" and "Butterflies and Hurricanes"
 * Roger Lian – digital editing
 * Howie Weinberg – mastering

Additional personnel
 * Audrey Riley – string arrangements
 * Spectrasonic's Symphony of Voices – vocal samples on "Stockholm Syndrome" and "Endlessly"
 * Storm Thorgerson, Dan Abbott – graphic design
 * Rupert Truman, Sean Winstanley – photography
 * Perou – band photography
 * Lee Baker – layout design
 * Sam Winston – typography
 * Leopoldo Lopes - recording engineer, assisting mixing engineer on "Intro", "Sing For Absolution", "Interlude", "Butterflies and Hurricanes", "Endlessly", "Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist"

Notes and references
Notes

References