12 Best Hard Rock Deep Cuts
2. Blackout - Muse
When going into a Muse album, fans are typically expecting something that sounds big from the outset. Whether it be from a heavy bass riff or from a percussive piano affair, Muse have always been known to have a forceful muscle behind every track they make. This habit is so consistent that when they decide to slow down a track, it almost sneaks up on you.
Falling right in the middle of Absolution, "Blackout" is an absolutely gorgeous ballad with an arrangement inspired by classical music. For almost half the track, Matt Bellamy's voice carries the whole tune while an orchestra plays beneath him. It's not as pummeling as you'd expect, but any such forcefulness may have been a detriment to the song's power. The lyrical theme of not letting the world beat you down at the dawn of life is both heartwarming with just a tinge of darkness in its delivery.
The song is then brought back into that familiar Muse mind aesthetic Bellamy's tremoloed guitar, which cops the vocal melody as the song continues to build in intensity. Even if the band was reaching outside of their wheelhouse on this affair, "Blackout" showed the sheer brilliance that was at work in the minds of Muse.