(Track from album, “Black Holes And Revelations”)
Bits of everything were coming together when I remembered "Take A Bow". "Stockholm Syndrome"'s complex and thrashy riff, and backing synth especially, the soft vocal on "Unintended", the pop factor of "Uprising", and, of course, the very Radiohead-esque atmosphere created by "New Born". Bundled in with the sleek finish of "Time Is Running Out", the heavy commercialization (including the video) surrounding "Knights Of Cydonia", the rock perfection of "Supermassive Black Hole" and also the mild danceability of "Starlight", the blender was ready to go and, at the flick of the switch, I was back watching the "Watchmen" trailer for the first time and thinking to myself, "What the hell is this song? I need to know. Now".
"Take A Bow" is one of the best album openers ever. Imagine golding this album, on vinyl, in your hands, laying it down on the turntable, and dropping the needle onto the first track. Then just try to imagine the explosion of genius and wondrous noise that exudes from the hi-fi as the crackle of the vinyl fades and is interrupted by the synthy maneuver of the opening deep-space keyboard trip through sound. It is beautiful, almost in the same way as some classical music, but with the taste of pop music and the quality of renowned indie/rock songwriting.
Just wow. It slowly picks up pace and the sampled vocoding of Matt Bellamy's voice repeats with significant speed before, in a pre-dubstep rock 'drop', everything slows, the drummer has a heart attack style fit of crashing and slamming, and the guitars bounce wildly around the meandering bass line which, like a drugged out rabbit, hopes aimlessly but wonderfully up and down.
The lyrics are pretty great too. They have a kind of impending violence to them. An intimidating quality. The track worked extremely well as the trailer music for "Watchmen", and in fact, the sound still conjures images of the bizarre, twisted superheroes for me, personally.
The whole package kind of makes my skin crawl, my hairs stand up on end. It excites the ears and never fails to please, and especially when the static reverb cuts out and "Starlight" begins, right at the end of the track, it's the reassuring feeling that you're in safe hands for the rest of the album that seems so special, and unique. It really is great.
"You'll burn in hell; you'll burn in hell for your sins!" - the originality of this band is a very special thing and even throughout disappointing moments like "Madness", "Survival", and the Exogenesis bollocks at the end of "The Resistance", you can still love Muse for being so intelligent with music, in a time when, simply not overdosing on bryll cream, auto-tuning, and promising not to steal riffs from The Clash will set you above the rest of the acts without any extra effort.
So really, this is just a quickee from me; frankly, I heard "Madness" for the 80th time on the radio, and just had to relive the old Muse in some way or other, just to feel good about the band, which, is becoming increasingly difficult; 'oooh' says Matt Bellamy, 'my son's heartbeat is featured on the 2nd law' - we don't care - just write another "Absolution" and it will all be good. Put his heartbeat on that one. There. Done. Much better. Problemo solved.
P.S next time I ask for help on one of these reviews, I promise to actually use one of your suggestions - promise...
★★★★★
Versions of "Take A Bow"
Album Version - 4:35