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Muse | Hullabaloo

Cut up and pasted together again by those chop-junkies at MTV's Cribs.
CD, Universal

Tekst: Xander van Aart

Publicatiedatum: 15 augustus 2002

Matt, goddammit,

I just received your new DVD, Hullabaloo: Live at Le Zenith - Paris, and it is now playing in my ultra-modern, full surround sound, flat-screen home entertainment center. Hullabaloo indeed. Your idea of creating a DVD that would knock people off their feet and leave them breathless is faulty. An awful lot of information is being fired at me on an even faster pace than the downfall of America's economy. You are a very interesting man, Matthew. And a born performer, too. But Hullabaloo is hideous, as far as I can see. Its cutting and editing is so brutally fast that I can hardly follow what the fuck is happening. It reminds me of a Quentin Tarantino movie, cut up and pasted together again by those chop-junkies at MTV's Cribs. You guys put at least a million shots from 800 angles in every one of those 90 minutes that the goddamn thing lasts. I hate to say this, Matt, but you and your band could do without all the irrelevant visual explosions and distraction, because you have enough quality onboard, musically and visibly, in Muse alone.

That light show alone had to cost you guys at least 20 Grand, not to speak of the fee for those bastards that were paid to turn knobs and step on pedals and put everything together when it comes to the sound. And especially the guitar sound. Matthew, you are a very innovative and brilliant guitarist, but you couldn't have created THAT sound all by yourself, live, onstage — and you won't ever in your life, with all due respect, no matter how talented or classically educated you are. It takes three men and three ultra-heavy trucks full of pedals, effects, and other equipment to produce those accelerating and muscular sounds that you spread; songs that are even beyond everything Frank Zappa, Richie Blackmore, or even John Frusciante on his solo records have ever produced. It is too over-the-top, Matt. And your voice sounds weird, too, but let's not get into details again, because I already made the point that you are totally into effects and over-dubbing. Even though I loathe this DVD for its aggressiveness in switching between shots and totally pointless over-dubbing, if we're talking sound, then it seems like the perfect release in-between the outstanding Origin of Symmetry and the forthcoming album. Without a doubt, you will sell at least a few million copies of the grotesque orgy of Britney Spears-styled, mass-manipulation of digital audio and video that is Hullabaloo. And that defines Muse as one of the greatest top bands around nowadays. Both creatively and commercially. But the latter one got the overhand, and that is exactly my response to that altered, neon balloon-made-out-of-effects-and-other-swaggering that is Hullabaloo.

But never mind my comments, Matthew. One negative review won't harm your Superstar status. Muse fans will love the thing more than Christians love God, or George W. Bush loves money. And Hullabaloo will go into the history books as a powerful statement from a young band that has the balls to do everything just a bit differently and kick rock music right in the nuts. You are a very powerful man, Matthew. You have the right kind of eye for commercialism and good songwriting, and that is why I like you. You have the guts and the balls and the talent to do it and leave us, the screaming reviewers, in the dust, whatever we write. World domination may lie in your future, Matthew, even having released that hideous DVD.

Bye,
Xander van Aart

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/muse/hullabaloo/1772/
Meer Muse op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/muse