More about: Muse
By designer Storm Thorgerson
One of my favourites album cover of all time it is Muse’s Black Holes and Revelations Album. There’s so much story behind this picture. As a student of graphic design, I did a lot of work talking about this cover. So let’s begin.
Storm Thorgerson is the sleeve designer of this album. He’s an English graphic designer best known for his work with Pink Floyd on the cover of The Dark Side of the Moon. His projects are always a little bit surrealist even though he doesn’t consider himself as a surrealist artist.
While doing the cover art for BH&R, his mainly inspiration were the songs “Knights of Cydonia” and “Invincible”. The chosen concept for the cover was the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, who are characters described in the last book of the New Testament of the Bible, called the Book of Revelation, but transcript to our modern world.
“The four men are sitting in an alien landscape around a sturdy wooden table with their symbolic nature represented by suitably decorated apparel. There were four miniature horses hanging around, as you tend to get. This sets thoughts was delivered directly from the music, which comprised three songs that seemed to evoke galloping (“Invisible” and “Knights of Cydonia” being two), along with a propensity musical grandness- majestic passages followed by thumping rhythms- with word “epic” or “biblical” coming to my mind, biblical horses become the four horseman of apocalypse, obviously, but hold on… Muse are a contemporary band so our four horseman needed to be represented not the evils of a medieval world - War, Hunger, Famine and Pestilence - but more contemporary evils. So what would they be?”
Storm Thorgerson in his book “The Raging Storm”
So it was decided that the four horseman would be Paranoia, Intolerance, Narcissism and Greed. In the cover art, you can see the respective characters:
- Mr. Paranoia: wears a suit of eyes, always watchful.
- Mr. Intolerance: wears a suit of patterned religious symbols.
- Mr. Narcissism: wears a outfit of many mirrors for he can never seen enough of himself.
- Mr. Greed: a suit of gold.
Not everything in the garden is rosy, the band had to fight with Thorgerson over the details of the art. They didn’t want the small horses, who Thorgerson had a particular affinity because it was the central feature to the generation of his idea. Besides, they didn’t like the landscape of Bardenas, Spain and asked to color it to something more similar with Mars.
The situation was resolved by the purchase of the copyright of the picture, with seems fair for both parties. As can be seen, in the first image it’s the band modification and the released form. The second one, it’s how the cover was supposed to be in Thorgerson's vision.
And you, what cover do you think is the best? Band version or Storm version?
Text by The Muse’s Alley
11. 'Invincible': A great song with a cute video and all, but of all Muse tracks, this feels like the one most intentionally written to inspire fist-pumps, lighters and stadium silliness. Sure, it's pretty glorious live, but it makes for the weakest moment on a consistently brilliant album.
10. 'Hoodoo': Picking up where 'Darkshines' left off with its Hispanic guitar sound, this cinematic Ennio Morricone-esque lament that shows an intimate window into Bellamy's soul and existential crisis before it builds into an EPIC piano crescendo would have been the highlight and centre-piece of most albums (because it's awesome), but is just one of many peaks on BHAR.
9. 'Soldier's Poem': It's like Muse's take on 'Unchained Melody', but about the conflict of being sent off to war for a country you love but for an unjust cause, which is cool.
8. 'Assassin': A fast-shredding, brutal rocker about the mindset of terrorists in the modern age, but all of the elements make it feel a little too 'Muse by numbers'. Still a cracker though, but we prefer the Grand Omega Bosses Edit of the track for a more dynamic ending and beefier sound. Hats off to Dom for them drums, though.
7. 'Exo-Politics': Inspired by Franz Ferdinand, this is Muse at their grooviest. More of this please. Oh, and WHAT a chorus.
6. 'Take A Bow': It's a shame they don't play this much any more, its more or less the perfect album opener. The synth arpeggio build up locks you in before a spiteful tirade against George Bush explodes: "You bring corruption to all that you touch, you will BURN IN HELL FOR YOUR SINS."
5. 'Starlight': Probably Muse's most radio-friendly single, few thought that Muse could have channelled Abba and Eurovision with such aplomb. All together now: "I JUST WANTED TO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLD..."
4. 'City Of Delusion': Arguably Muse's most underrated album track, this orchestral-tinged prog-rock operatic epic is to BHAR what 'Citizen Erased' was to Origin Of Symmetry, and deserves it's place in Muse's live sets today. PLAY IT MORE PLEASE.
3. 'Map Of The Problematique': It's essentially their take on Depeche Mode's 'Enjoy The Silence', which was only ever going to be wonderful - and boy, is it. Each band member's part is rather understated, but adds up to something HUGE.
2. 'Knights Of Cydonia': One of those rare incredible tracks that's perfect for both giving a show an explosive opening, or ending on an almighty high. This space-rock magnum opus where Ennio Morricone meets Queen and Star Wars is probably the best song about war on Mars that you'll ever hear.
1. 'Supermassive Black Hole': It may totally ape the sound of underrated Belgian stoner-rockers Millionaire (something the band themselves admit) but that menacing combo of Marilyn Manson and Prince makes for Muse's sexiest moment, most accessible and awesome single. The true highlight of BHAR that exploded their worldwide appeal and made them stadium kings without diluting their essence.
More about: Muse
Photo: Storm Thorgerson Studios
