Writing and Composition
The band spent much of 2002 recording Absolution with producer Rich Costey. The album was recorded in studios in both Los Angeles and London. Bellamy said that the band made a "conscious decision" to "get together in a room and make music", setting aside time to record the album, as previous albums' recording sessions were 'hastily arranged' and rushed.
Absolution introduces many musical and lyrical themes which would later become Muse's trademarks, such as symphonic rock influences on "Butterflies and Hurricanes", classical music influences on "Blackout" and electronic music influences on "Endlessly". Lyrically, the album incorporates themes of fear, mistrust, personal achievement and joy. Bellamy said that the beginning of the Iraq War had an effect on their songwriting. These musical influences and lyrical themes were relatively new to Muse's sound and would be further explored on their following albums, in particular their fifth studio album The Resistance.
The b-side and bonus track Fury and future Black Holes and Revelations track "Soldier's Poem" were among discarded material written during the Absolution sessions, with "Fury" being dropped in favour of "The Small Print" due to Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard's preference to the latter song, despite frontman Matt Bellamy intending to include the former on the album's tracklisting.
The track "Blackout" featured an 18-piece orchestra.
Read more about this topic: Absolution (album)
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