THE HARD STUFF REISSUES
Muse
Origin Of Symmetry XX Anniversary RemiXX WARNERS
The space rockers’ breakthrough, reimagined for its 20th anniversary.
Even for a band known for flying drones over audiences, and recently played encores within the reach of a gigantic, slavering robot xenomorph, it’s a daring move to mess with the motherlode. Muse’s 2001 second album, Origin Of Symmetry marked the birth of their cult, its ostentatious, classically overblown take on future rock defying those critics who mocked the pomp and ambition of debut Showbiz, flying in the face of the clipped new-wave alternative scene of the time and setting the burgeoning Teignmouth titans several light years apart from their peers. For many fans introduced to the band by Plug In Baby, New Born and Citizen Erased, it’s their definitive statement; the DNA – one strand space metal, one strand Berlioz, one strand Aldous Huxley, one strand Phillip K Dick – from which all of their subsequent, stadium-crushing music evolved. To suggest it could be improved is akin to lobbing glitter at the Mona Lisa.