Muse: Showbiz (2LP) [WARNER]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set is pressed on 180g vinyl in the EU and housed in a gatefold sleeve. Showbiz has sold more than 1.2 million copies worldwide and gave Muse five singles.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Every stadium band starts somewhere, and for Muse it was Sawmills Studio in Cornwall, where owner Dennis Smith gave three young Devon lads free recording time. Producer John Leckie, who had made Radiohead's The Bends, began turning up at their gigs in late 1998 and said he'd work with them if they could ever afford him. By spring 1999 they could, and the recording was finished by May 15. Most of the songs dated back to 1996 or 1997, so the band arrived knowing exactly how they wanted them to sound.

Matt Bellamy had around fifty songs written before they went in, and the band picked the most direct ones, saving the stranger material for B-sides. Recorded at RAK and Sawmills, the album hints at classical, jazz, blues and Latin music under a big alternative rock surface. "Sunburn" opens on piano, "Muscle Museum" builds to a howl, "Unintended" is a tender acoustic ballad, and "Uno" and "Cave" show off the riffs to come.

Leckie said he chose Muse precisely because he wanted to do something different. Within a few years they were filling arenas, so we'd say the man knows how to spot a good investment.

Also at Kops: more Muse on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Warner Records / Helium 3, a reissue of the 1999 album.