Reel One: A pitch-black backdrop interrupted only by a smattering of very distant and slightly out of focus stars. Matt Bellamy freefalls in slow motion, legs and arms flailing. His expression: awestruck. So this is how the world ends. Not with a bang, nor a whimper, but the most grandiose stage show of all time. Scream as a 10,000-piece orchestra bleed perfectly crafted decadence as the planets detonate around them. Gasp as amps the size of Jupiter cause an eternity of hurricanes with power chords that ripple and buzz with electricity. Swoon as Matt Bellamy pupates before your very eyes, blossoming from a mere spiky haired Radiohead devotee into a celestial diva, glowing from the inside. == Reel Two: As above. Matt's expression: perplexed. They've done it again, then. After 'The Origin Of Symmetry' blasted their contemporary references points into the nineteenth century and raised the bar in terms of outrageous theatre and knowing melodrama, Muse have found themselves at an impasse. What do you do once you've created and destroyed a glittering emerald universe in the space of a single record? Either you mutate and head off into 'Kid A' territory, with the possibility that yet another impasse may await you. Or, you shrug your shoulders, rebuild your playpen to even grander proportions and demolish it all over again. == Reel Three: As above. Matt's expression: demonic. To begin with, the scope is all-encompassing, the universe in widescreen. The album starts with the sound of a marching army before shifting into the frenetic clamour of 'Apocalypse Please', piano chords being hammered with blind determination, harmonies swooning with beatific surrender, Matt howling for "a miracle/it's time we saw something biblical" like he's the ringmaster of 'Armageddon On Ice'. 'Time Is Running Out' and 'Sing For Absolution' continue the theme on a slightly smaller scale, tempering the excesses of yore with moments of soft beauty, as if this is more about real emotion than spectacular bombast. == Reel Four. As above. But as Matt continues to tumble the texture of the foreground changes, gentle undulations switching the location from the night sky to miles underwater. Matt's expression: scared. But you don't make a record about the end of time, of course. Not unless it starts from somewhere deep inside. Not unless it's making a point. Two songs about lost or abandoned or ruined love, 'Stockholm Syndrome' and 'Falling Away From You', lead onto an interlude of Sigur Ros-style noise called, simply, 'Interlude'. And then comes the truth. 'Blackout' is the core of the album, its momentum, a drifting orchestral lament about mortality. This is the sound of a young man suddenly staring in the abyss, discovering that all of his majestic tricks and outrageous gestures are worth nought. "This life's too good to last." == Reel Five: As above. And so it continues.'Butterflies And Hurricanes', driven along by an organ line that sounds like a steady flow of electronic information, is a last minute attempt to rail against the dying of the light. "You've got to change the world/and use this chance to be heard". Because this is it, of course. "Your number's been called." And just in case we're in any doubt, there's 'Thoughts Of A Dying Athiest', with the straightforward chorus of "Are you afraid to die?/It scares the hell out of me/and the end is all I can see". It's the obvious conclusion. You either end up here or scrabbling in the hedgerows, searching for ghosts. == Reel Six: As above. All of which begs the question: where do Muse go after this? Can they keep creating and destroying, blasting out the most inventive and exhilarating rock music Britain's producing right now, on and on, until they grind themselves into the ground? Or is it all just for show? Catharsis as spectacle, despair as entertainment, Matt as the evil, ultra-confident twin of that poor guy with the holey cardigan and seven day's growth who has to go driving late at night because he's scared to go to sleep? Where will it all end? == Reel Seven: Blackout. == 九分。 Ian Watson -- 啊，吾的焦躁表現得那麼明顯嗎？ --

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