Critical Reception and Legacy
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Sputnikmusic | |
| Allmusic | |
| NME | 6/10 |
| Pitchfork Media | 6.7/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
Upon its release, the album received mixed reviews from music critics, who were quick to dismiss the album as promising yet derivative of other alternative rock bands of the 90s, with many critics drawing comparisons to Radiohead and some even pointing out that Showbiz was produced by John Leckie, who also worked on said band's album The Bends. Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork Media said in his review of the album that "Muse expertly boil down Radiohead into punkish radio nuggets.", but went on to question that "despite this promise, where can they go from here?", which resulted in a rating of 6.7 of a possible 10. In a similar review, NME said that "'Showbiz' is not as clever as they think it is ... 'Unintended' and the title track are overwrought, prone to excruciatingly bad pseudo poetry", which ended in a 6 out of 10 score from the publication. On the other hand, a more positive view came from Andrew Hartwig of Sputnik Music, who called Showbiz "an excellent record" and awarded it 4 out of 5.
The album seems to have drawn something of a following since its release however, as in 2009 the album was placed in the top 20 British albums of the last 20 years by the UK edition of MSN. As well as this, several songs from the album appear to have had lasting appeal among fans, such as the title track, which was one of the band's most requested songs during The Resistance Tour in 2010, when the band staged a fan vote for songs to be played during that tour's stadium leg. The song was not played; however, Unintended and Cave were played several times throughout the tour, with Sunburn being introduced during later performances of the tour.
Read more about this topic: Showbiz (album)
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