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Apocalypse Please.

OscarC

By OscarC
in Songs & Releases

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Draymen Escapee

Draymen

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It is a great song by them, but it seems a little basic to me. I hold several other Muse songs in higher esteem. I, without meaning to, I find myself skipping it. Not because I don't like it, but because I've gotten bored.

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boshalake Escapee

boshalake

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Il always have a special connection with Apocolypse Please, seeing as I remember being 14, and I remember being in London for the weekend and buying Absolution (having been informed by the cool girl at my school that Muse were awesome, not having heard them myself) and as soon as I got near a CD player, placing it straight in and then.................... *crunch, crunch, crunch crunch crunch.* PIANO......

............... I've been addicted ever since. The girl has sinced moved on from my life, but Il always be grateful to her.

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  • 7 months later...
shiv22 Escapee

shiv22

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Hey, as you can see I'm new to this forum but I've been a Muse fan for over 6 years now.

Quick brief;

 

I'm studying Music Technology BA (Hons) in London and for one of my assignments I have decided to analyse the song 'Apocalypse Please' from the album 'Absolution'.

 

Anyway, what I need from you all. :)

 

If you have any info on the song (backed up with a reference - from a book or website) regarding how the song was made, then please let me know, so I can include it in my Assignment.

 

Thanks in advance!!!

 

Will

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shiv22 Escapee

shiv22

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there isn't much that i've read. the asolution making of documentary would be your best bet. parts of it might be on youtube.

 

I already have this on DVD and am using it. I'm also using some research from the Sound on Sound article interviewing Rich Costey (the producer of Absolution).

 

Thanks anyway :)

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shiv22 Escapee

shiv22

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Sadly I cannot use wikipedia as a solid reference. I've already had a look at these and found the link to SoS. I was just hoping that someone may know about a website reviewing the album.

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MattXXI Escapee

MattXXI

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Sadly I cannot use wikipedia as a solid reference. I've already had a look at these and found the link to SoS. I was just hoping that someone may know about a website reviewing the album.

 

http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=41

http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/m/muse-absolution.shtml

 

Like this? The first article talks a bit about the song more so than the 2nd site.

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shiv22 Escapee

shiv22

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http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=41

http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/m/muse-absolution.shtml

 

Like this? The first article talks a bit about the song more so than the 2nd site.

 

Excellent! This is just what I'm looking for. If yourself or anyone else can find something similar, it would be amazing.

 

I need more than one source because it's not professional to just use one source as a reference.

 

Thanks again!

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sade Escapee

sade

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No one's mentioned the schizophrenic vocals explained in the book Out of This World by Mark Beaumont. There's a whole section about the song in that book, too, if you're interested.

 

I actually checked this out and there's analysis of the song on pp.195-196 of the book (Omnibus Press 2008). However, the way Beaumont writes makes it sometimes unclear which ideas are his, which are Matt's-he also has a tendency to write as he's in Matt's head ("From the recording studio, Matt Bellamy watched the war unfold...") though it's more fiction than actual facts. I would suggest you dig out NME interviews from that time period as Beaumont is an NME scribe and the original source is probably interviews he had with the band at that time. (Your local music library?). If you are seeking to fulfill good academic standards it's better to use first-hand sources, I mean.

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shiv22 Escapee

shiv22

Posted
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I actually checked this out and there's analysis of the song on pp.195-196 of the book (Omnibus Press 2008). However, the way Beaumont writes makes it sometimes unclear which ideas are his, which are Matt's-he also has a tendency to write as he's in Matt's head ("From the recording studio, Matt Bellamy watched the war unfold...") though it's more fiction than actual facts. I would suggest you dig out NME interviews from that time period as Beaumont is an NME scribe and the original source is probably interviews he had with the band at that time. (Your local music library?). If you are seeking to fulfill good academic standards it's better to use first-hand sources, I mean.

 

Ah man, I need to get hold of that book asap. I wonder if there's and online version I can just read for that section? If I can just use a quote from it, that would help.

 

Drums by pool awesomeness :awesome:

 

:p

 

No one's mentioned the schizophrenic vocals explained in the book Out of This World by Mark Beaumont. There's a whole section about the song in that book, too, if you're interested.

 

great thanks!

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shiv22 Escapee

shiv22

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Thanks guys and girls for all of you help. Today I bought two books for referencing;

 

Out of this World: The Story of Muse by Mark Beaumont

Muse: Inside the Muscle Museum by Ben Myers

 

I found only a few lines worth referencing, but I'll read both of them anyway as a Muse fan myself.

 

I'll let you know what mark I get for my work.

 

:D

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laura_c Escapee

laura_c

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Don't know if you're still working on this but it reminded me of a lecture I had on intertextuality in popular music, don't think anyone's brought it up on here yet...

 

I suggest you watch (if you haven't already) Apocalypse Now, in particular this scene:

 

The argument hinges on the fact that Muse are making a reference to the name of the film by calling the song 'Apocalypse Please', and indeed the theme of the whole album is pretty apocalyptic.

 

This is backed up by another intertextual reference when you see that the scene in Apocalypse Now is soundtracked by the Doors song 'The End', which opens with the line 'This is the end' (the song does, not the extract) which turns out to be a fairly significant line in AP. It would be a safe bet to say that Muse are aware of The Door's work and would realise the significance of this.

 

And so this leads you on to an interesting discussion about signs and signifiers and layers of meaning and pretentiousness/elitism, and the fact that the song takes on a different meaning once the listener realises all these intertextual references exist.

 

At this hour of he morning I'm struggling to se how you could shoehorn this into a production based essay but there's a challenge for you.

 

Sorry, don't have a reference unless you can count my lecture notes.

 

And by the way, the video has some serious bull slaughtering in it, so avoid if you're a veggie.

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Railroad Escapee

Railroad

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I do not know what the hell New Born's lyrics signify or mean, and frankly I do not want to know. It's just crap, ruins a perfectly good song IMHO. If New Born HAD a meaning, it would be my favourite.

 

I know you made a point later on about this being a thread for AP, but you're also the one who compared it to New Born and I just *have* to respond to it. If you just merely disliked the song, I could understand it, but to dislike it for something that simply isn't true is tragic to me.

 

Yes, Matt's lyrics are a little obtuse at times, and I'll agree, one of the cool things about AP is that they're fairly straightforward (no matter how you choose to interpret them--as irony or not). But I also like the imagery and/or poetic license taken with some of the more obtuse songs. It would be a little boring, IMO, if all the songs had straightforward lyrics. I won't explain New Born's lyrics line by line to you, and I know you said you don't care to know (which again, IMO, is a tragic thing to say--why wouldn't you want to know if you love the song otherwise?), but I'll just say it has to do with the overexposure to technology that many of our generations have had and the separation it creates when people don't connect on a personal level anymore ("Soulless is everywhere", "I'm drifting away, away from you"--to cite a couple of examples in the lyrics).

 

That said, while I don't think Matt's lyrics on a whole are terrible by any means, I rarely like Muse's songs solely (or even mainly) for the lyrics. It's mostly the epic musicality (I think most can agree that Matt's more of a musician than a writer). If I want great lyrics (or, at the very least, ones that tickle me immensely) I'll listen to Cake.

 

For the record, I think both New Born and AP are epic. If either of them come up on my playlist, I get stuck on them and have to listen repeatedly. AP has one of the most thundering, awesome piano parts ever written for a rock song (great piano gets me every time), no matter how simple it is or not. The message of the song (again, no matter how you interpret it) is brilliantly conveyed through the music.

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