This is a CD review of Absolution by Muse that I have done for A-level English Langauge. Please read and give some sort of criticism (positive/negative). Stupid posts are OK but not helpful for an a-level grade - :) Thanks for your help and here it is:

ROCKERS FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION

Muse – a band from that come from a small town, make big noise and one earth-shattering record.

Let’s face it – the end of the world is nigh. A president who probably doesn’t know the meaning of peace, a war in Iraq that has made the world an even worse place than it already is as have the countless amount of horrible, sick and violent terrorist attacks. This claim is also shared with mighty Teignmouth rockers, Muse.
You see, Muse are a British rock band. But they are not your stereotypical rock band. They are a band who can push the boundaries of what is expected in British rock today. Some call them absurd after their second album, ‘Origin Of Symmetry’, in turn an amazing rock album, which generated an incredibly ridiculous amount of mixed reviews. Some say they are the best thing to come out of Devon since…well the last rock band to come out of Devon. Most importantly, they give a British rock a good old mighty, energy fuelled kick up the backside.
‘Absolution’ is the third album from this essential British band and if some people thought that ‘Origin Of Symmetry’ was bombastic, then ‘Absolution’ pushes the bombast factor even further, and then some. It’s opening song, ‘Apocalypse Please’ is one of the most brilliant album openers in recent memory with thundering piano chords and a booming and Dominic Howard’s powerful army-like drum beat. Matt Bellamy, their frontman of epic proportions, announces the direction of the songs of the album with the lines ‘Declare this an emergency/Come on and spread a sense of urgency.’
The themes of this record continue throughout this album. ‘Time Is Running Out’ (the band’s first ever top 10 single) with Chris Wolstenholme’s pounding synth bass and catchy handclaps is the poppiest protest song in recent memory, rock ballad ‘Sing For Absolution’, twinkling piano and dramatic ending included, deals with sorrow and ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, with it’s heavy metal-esque riffing and almost congo-like drumbeat deals with increasingly desperate situations.
‘Falling Away With You,’ perhaps the most personal song on the album, with Bellamy singing about the breakdown of a relationship (‘All of the love we’ve left behind/Watching the flashbacks intertwine’), is a beauty of a track with its tender acoustic beginnings and, like ‘Sing For Absolution,’ comes to a dramatic conclusion, followed by an interlude and then ‘Hysteria,’ a stonking behemoth of a rock track with a bass riff of a man possessed from ‘Wolstenholme,’ with the song perhaps an ode to the theatrics of Queen. This ends the first half of the album and you would think after a promising start that the rest of the album would suffer.
It doesn’t, and by half. The second half brings out the more experimental side of Muse. ‘Blackout’ has a full orchestra gently creating an amazing melody that could easily fall into classic Italian opera. Bellamy concludes this track with the line ‘This life could be the last/And we’re too young to see.’ A clear indication that recent terror attacks in the last few years like 9/11 has clearly had an impact on this album on the whole. But how do you follow such an amazing piece of music like that?
‘Butterflies & Hurricanes.’ That’s how. Easily, the standout track of the album with strings once again an integral part. A song, unlike all songs before, about hope (‘Best/You’ve got to be the best’) and is as dramatic as drama can be. It has everything, including an absolutely astonishing piano breakdown in the middle that undermines the many comparisions between Bellamy and Rachmanimov. Stunning, bewildering, brilliant…the list of superlatives can go on but all you need to know is that it is the best rock track in recent memory.
‘The Small Print,’ the song that follows, is a typical Muse rock song – heavy and full of energy. ‘Endlessly’ is the biggest experimentation with its house-beat feel and is the only real song that breaks away from the rest of the album (‘Hopelessly/I love you endlessly’), ‘Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist,’ not only with a great song name, has a hell of a track to boot with the feel of classic Smiths and easily a single contender and ‘Ruled By Secrecy,’ a haunting finale with Bellamy back at the piano, ends with a line that sums up ‘Absolution’ – ‘No one knows who’s in control.’
Some people will not like the bombast of this album, but in all honesty Muse don’t care. And that is perhaps the best quality of this band. ‘Absolution’ is a perfect rock record from a perfect British rock band. Shifting from Queen-like operatics to some of the best rock-opera tracks in the last few years, this album is a must-have not only for fans of Muse or for rock music lovers, but for people who want to hear an record that can go through every emotion in the Grand Book Of Emotions. A kick up the backside or British rock this is indeed.

Fin.