Every Muse Album Ranked Worst To Best
7. Showbiz
This was Muse's starting point. Released in 1999, Showbiz saw the band still wearing their influences firmly on their sleeves. Each of these songs has a guitar tone ripped out of 90's metal and song structures that seem to be ripped out of Thom Yorke's songbook.
This tends to be a record that many naysayers point to when they dismiss Muse as Radiohead plagiarists. While this record does show the most Radiohead infatuation, Muse did a fantastic job fleshing out their sound in recent years to create something truly their own.
On this release, the band just sounds like they're not sure what Muse should be. There are definitely some ragers like "Sunburn" and "Sober," but other musical detours show up on the country-tinged "Falling Down" or the ballad "Unintended." The standout on this record has to be "Muscle Museum." Since the other songs sound a touch disjointed from one another, this tune helped lay the groundwork for the sound that Muse would perfect later down the road. This album is by no means the band's best, but it provides an impressive start to a stellar career.