Muse: Origin of Symmetry (2LP) [HELIUM 3/WARNER]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set comes in a gatefold jacket that opens up to the series of artworks commissioned for the title. Origin of Symmetry reached No. 3 in the UK, went platinum and has sold more than two million copies worldwide.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Gatefold jacket
• Commissioned artworks inside the gatefold
• Pressed in the Czech Republic
• Stereo mix

About the album

Muse took the album title from a book by physicist Michio Kaku, a fair sign of the scale they had in mind in 2001. Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard developed the songs on tour for their debut Showbiz, then made them enormous with John Leckie and David Bottrill producing at Ridge Farm and Real World Studios.

"New Born" opens with a delicate piano figure before the riff detonates, "Plug In Baby" has one of the great guitar riffs of the decade, and "Bliss" and "Citizen Erased" swing from sci-fi grandeur to fragile beauty. Their take on "Feeling Good," the Newley and Bricusse song Nina Simone made famous, became a calling card, and "Megalomania" closes on a mighty organ.

It still tops plenty of fans' lists, a heady blend of rock and classical drama. Few bands have quoted theoretical physics on the cover and then played stadiums; Muse rather made it look like the obvious career plan.

Also at Kops: more Muse on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Helium 3 / Warner Records, a reissue of the 2001 album.