bsolution is the state of being absolved, cleared of guilt, pardoned. This is the title of the third studio album by the English trio Muse and the first to come out in two years. Leaving us with the question, was it worth the wait?

In the opening track “Apocalypse Please”, with haunting lyrics “its time we start a miracle, come on its time for something biblical” over repeated heavy blows on the piano, singer Matthew Bellamy quickly assures us that this is a CD to be listened to not just heard.

The fourteen track CD starts out dark with “Apocalypse Please” and continues on to “Time Is Running Out”, the second single off of the CD, which punched its doom straight to the radio airwaves. But despair and the end of it all is not the theme of the album. The band uses the same musical punch to bring love and hope, as in the title track “Absolution”, that it uses to cast shadows on the world in other tracks.

The track “Butterflies and Hurricanes” is the epitome of what Absolution is. Once a butterfly, next a hurricane, then back again.

Musically, this CD shows a band far superior to their earlier efforts, with a sound fuller than ever before. Teetering on the edge of over-production, Absolution creates many tones in and out of each listening. Howling guitars, crashing pianos, and hard pounding drum beats abound. It makes you think the trio has derailed the post-Radiohead shadows they may have once dwelled in.

The height of Absolution is track eight. The third single from the CD, entitled “Hysteria”, has all the liking of a classic Muse song. A siren-esque guitar with a marching bassline amidst the distorted sound of Bellamy’s lyrics, “’cuz I want it now, I want it now, give me your heart and your soul” sold me a front row ticket to the next Muse show. (Ed. Note: If they ever tour the US again)

If absolution is to be cleared of guilt and sin, perhaps Muse is thinking this CD to be a fresh start. Although it doesn’t sound entirely different from their first two efforts, its hard to argue that what Muse has done with their latest effort may absolve them from being a band that will come and go without a good part of the world stopping to notice.