Con 12 milioni di dischi venduti, i Muse sono senza dubbio il più importante gruppo inglese dell'ultima generazione, l'anello di congiunzione tra la spettacolarità rock dei Queen e il lirismo pop dei Radiohead. Dalla prima Battle of the Bands nel Devon, da dove sono partiti, al tutto esaurito dello Stadio di Wembley, dove sono approdati, Fuori dal mondo ricostruisce la stratosferica ascesa della band di Teignmouth con decine di aneddoti e interviste esclusive, prima inedite, raccolte tra il 1998 e il 2010, analizzandone scrupolosamente i cinque album di studio, dall'ormai mitico Showbiz al più recente The resistance, e ripercorrendo passo dopo passo i sedici anni impiegati dai tre ragazzini punk per salire sulla cima dell'Olimpo del Rock.
A contributor to such titles as The Times, Shortlist, The Guardian and Uncut, Beaumont's writings have predominantly appeared in the NME where he has written numerous reviews and interviews since 1995 and has also functioned as the magazine's letters and singles page editor. Considered by NME editor Conor McNicholas one of the title's "star" writers, Beaumont has frequently been assigned the task of reviewing latest releases and gigs from high-profile artists Arctic Monkeys, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Coldplay and Muse.
Extremely enlightening read for any fan of the British band Muse. Since a few years ago, Muse have become one of the bands I cherish the most, and I was really looking forward to immerse myself in this biography and learn every small piece of trivia I could. Goal reached!
This is an exhaustive biography that doesn't leave any corner of the band's story unexplained. Undoubtedly, the best chapters are those dedicated to their teenage years, and the release of Showbiz and Origin of Symmetry. The author doesn't hide anything (just as the guys), and tell us adequately all the struggles and battles Muse had to fight to reach their complete international breakthrough. A nice touch that makes this biography even more wholesome, it's that Beaumont includes at the end of each chapter unprinted interviews not only with the boys, but also with their producers and other members of their staff; this makes more than a total of 10 years of exclusive interviews about Muse, so it's very entertaining.
The only thing I haven't liked is, well, not his fault I suppose; I dislike reading extensive critical music reviews, as they tend to be a bit complicated for my tastes. There were many adjectives and comparisons used here that I simply couldn't get.
Simply awesome. So many funny anecdotes and explanations for why some songs and gigs came to be and I can't help but fall in love with this band all over again. A+.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson once said that artists were ones of the most irrational people he ever met, and he meant it in a good way. If that's true then Matt Bellamy (frontman) of Muse takes this notion to the whole new level. Good chap and author of multi platinum albums according to this book believed (or joked very convincingly) following conspiracy theories: 1) He can talk with his past lives during the meditation. 2) In Iraq, in mystery catacombs you can find plates written in ancient computer language with cosmos maps. They were buried there by aliens from 12th planet Nibiru. Whole human kind was also created by them. 3) He fears to be impregnated by aliens. 4) Spiders are cosmic creatures capable to drift space in anabiosis till they hit new planet and then colonise it. 5) 9/11 was an inside job. 6) Trilateral Commission is a secret world gouvernment that makes all global decisions with their masonic members. 7) When world oil reserves drain (and that will be really soon) USA will wage war with the rest of the world and US itself will be one global market of drugs and arms. 8) Wall Street is a big system of money laundering from drugs and arms backed up by CIA. 9) "Mad Max" future is inevitable, thus he constructed a fallout shelter, stacked enough firewood, bought 50 cans of beans, killed and cooked live chickens to acquire survival skills. 10) He transfers his money into cash or property to avoid bank slavery. 11) The Beatles were an organisation that brainwashed minds of american youth. 12) He wore amulet made by his friend scientist, that protects from electromagnetic rays. 13) All religions are a result of ancient aliens contact. 14) Psychics use their oujia boards to contact spirits of dead. He himself tried to contact a spirit of the dead owner of his italian villa, who happened to be composer to help him with music. 15) Genuinely believed in Maya apocalypse. And finally, "United States of Eurasia" song is about necessity to form Eurasia union and fight back evil USA, nevertheless the band toured USA with triumph after such claims. Man, only a solid democracy like US is capable of that. People, appreciate it as much as Muse's music. In the end who cares about all this as long as songs are a blast!
Overall a decent book, easy light-hearted narrative full of captivating on/off road stories in life of a band with a lifetyle as fun as it's possible in 21 century.
This book read like one big album and concert review. It had some bits of interesting information sprinkled throughout but not a whole lot. When it comes to rock biographies, this one is pretty tame. I didn’t learn much new about the band as people. Maybe because I followed them closely in the early 2000’s so already knew a lot of it. But in reality, he just didn’t go into who they were. I feel like he dragged on the fact that Matt is a conspiracy theorist but that’s about it, and that got boring. I will say, I lost interest in the band during BHAR. So I will give this book credit for getting me to listen to the albums since then. I picked up Drones when it came out because I liked the snippets I’d been hearing at the time. But still don’t know if I’ll pick up the others after BHAR.
If you're one of them hardcore Muse fans (like me) who regularly trawl Musewiki, Muselive and the boards, this book will be rather tedious to read since Beaumont has heavily sourced from these websites. Also, Beaumont's bombastic writing style of adding more than unnecessary idioms and phrases are tiring to read at times (I guess that's the NME journalist in him).
However I do find Muse's family backgrounds to be interesting, and the compilated Muse discography at the back of the book will be awesome for Muse fans who intend to find their more obscure songs on the Internet.
If you are Muse fan - highly recommended. The book delves in Muse background and explains their history through the albums.
+ lots of information + easy read + carefully balanced with personal information + appropriate for 16+ age. Some paragraphs on drugs (and conspiracy theories:))
- there are long explanations how the songs sound. I find this boring, since I've heard them.
I really enjoyed this book and the insight of the earlier days. The interviews with either the bandmembers themselves or the ones close to them (crewmembers and such) are really intresting. One thing that somehow felt rushed- the chapters about the later albums- I'm not sure why.
All in all the book also wouldn't have been written withouth Musewiki, which he mentioned in the sources.
Really amazing biography about one of the biggest (indie-rock) in our time. It is highly recommended for those who are big fans - or want to get to know them.
Me myself is one of those who ''know'' them very well, therefore I found the book both hilarious and interesting.
Dies ist das Importergebnis eines Buches, das mal wieder nicht in der Datenbank ist ...grr. Das übernehme ich jetzt einfach als Platzhalter für die Challenge.)
Richtiger Titel:
das Verborgene in mir - Alexis Runa
Was passiert, wenn die Gefühle etwas anderes wollen, als der Verstand?
Dann hat man ein Problem. Mars möchte sich nicht binden, maximal ein One-Night-Stand, allenfalls inklusive Frühstück, mehr ist nicht drin. Und jung und hübsch müssen sie sein, vorzugsweise seine Akt - Models. Eine Beziehung? Nie wieder. Dela hat alles, was sie sich immer gewünscht hat, und während sie über den nächsten Schritt vorwärts in ihrer Beziehung nachdenkt, macht Robert einen Schritt zurück. Beziehungsweise zur Seite, also eher einen Sprung zur Seite, und dort möchte er auch bleiben. Gut, denkt Dela, aber es tut trotzdem höllisch weh. Erst als sie Mars begegnet, findet sie wieder einige Gefühle wieder, die sie nicht mehr zu haben glaubte. Vor allem erotische Anziehung.
Aber kann mehr daraus werden, wenn beide das auf gar keinen Fall wollen?
Dieses Buch besticht durch seine ganz eigene erotische Anziehungskraft. In verschiedenen Perspektiven geschrieben, erkennt man durchaus die Nuancen, die Mann und Frau unterscheiden. Sowohl im täglichen Leben , als auch in der Gefühlswelt. Ich fand beide Protagonisten absolut authentisch gezeichnet und trotz all ihrer Schwächen und Stärken sind mir beide sehr sympathisch , ja sogar ein Stück ans Herz gewachsen. Da fiebert man doch gerne mit und erfreut sich an den erotischen Momenten , die man als Leser mit den beiden erleben darf. In diesem Buch sind auch andere Szenen eingebettet, sie stammen von einer Frau namens Myrina, und erst ganz zum Schluss erfolgt des Rätsels Lösung. Das fand ich ein wenig ungeschickt gelöst, hier hätte ich mir vorher schon einen kleinen Anhaltspunkt gewünscht. Eventuell , dass man diese Kapitel als Buchcover" eingerahmt" darstellt, so ist es völlig aus jeglichem Zusammenhang, und abgesehen davon, dass das Geschriebene wirklich heiß, sinnlich und erotisch ist ,hatte ich nur Fragezeichen auf der Stirn. Ich denke durch diese Kapitel sollten einige wärmende Nuancen eingefügt werden, denn die Geschichte um Dela und Mars ist zwar hocherotisch, allerdings in einem Tempo, dass perfekt stimmig ist, und somit sind die Momente der beiden Protagonisten zwar vorhanden , aber nicht dominant beschrieben und zeitlich auch nicht eng getaktet.
Was mir besonders gut gefallen hat, war der Sprachstil, hier ist sprachliche Erotik gegeben, und die finde ich persönlich fantastisch. Niemals auch nur ansatzweise vulgär, beschreibt das Autorenpaar die schönste Nebensache der Welt zwar eindeutig, aber eindeutig stilistisch hervorragend. Ja, auch Sprache kann sehr sexy sein, und in diesem Buch ist das absolut gelungen. Dazu noch eine kluge Geschichte mit Gefühlen, die jeder schon einmal erlebt hat, und fertig ist ein wundervolles eroto - poetisches Buch ( haha gibt es das Wort überhaupt), das dem Leser in wunderbaren Worten die schönste Nebensache der Welt beschreibt, die in dem schönsten Gefühl der Welt mündet. Einen Kritikpunkt hätte ich allerdings noch: Mit einem korrekten Genitiv wäre die sprachliche Erotik noch vollkommener und orgiastischer gewesen:)
Trotzdem : Fünf wundervolle Sterne und eine klare Leseempfehlung im Genre : Erotik.
This was a different writing style, written from the journalist perspective, and took me a bit to get into. But I found myself sucked in every time I picked up this book and was fairly tuned out to my surroundings during these reading sessions. I'm a relatively late-comer as far as hard- core Muse fans go, as I became a fan back in college, probably around 2010, when I first heard "Starlight" on my Coldplay Pandora station. I remember that first love. I was like, "wait a minute, that was a cool song" and had to listen to it many more times and totally soak it in, then listened to other Muse songs and realized that I finally found a band where I loved ALL of their songs. That never happens! I've been making up for lost time ever since. I wouldn't say I'm their biggest fan, because there is some serious competition out there, but their CD's are played in my car on the way to and from work for weeks, months... straight to the exclusion of any other music and I am perfectly content with that! I always find new meaning in the music and the lyrics. Matt is a deep thinker and puts all of that into his writing and composing. Back to the book... with me coming on to the scene with the Black Holes and Revelations album.. where this book ends, this bio was an awesome intro and filler-in for my lack of knowledge. I would love to read a sequel, since The Resistance was such a huge album and influence on me, and I love the 3 albums after that one too. A lot has happened since then for the band too. I liked living the rockstar life vicariously through reading this bio and it was interesting seeing such a different perspective of life. All the places they visit, all the people they meet, all the shenanigans. Looking forward to Matt's quarantine solo release this Friday!! In the meantime, I've been listening to all their old songs in a new light, after learning backstories and musical techniques employed. Maybe someday I can get this book signed... hehe one can dream.
Pretty good biography that covers the beginning of the band up to the debut of their 6th album in 2013, with lots of fascinating and questionable anecdotes. This is a later edition than the original 2008 release and the years 2009-2013 were added chapters and thus felt a bit rushed and thin. Has a lot of interesting early interviews transcribed which is nice to have when these old old videos are slowly disappearing from YouTube.
Mark has continued to be one of the journalists with the best understanding of what Muse is about so I'm sure there is plenty of material ready for a volume 2, Mark if you're reading this!
A bit disappointed in terms of writing materials. As one of fanatics of the band, I spend hours and hours since 13 years ago strolling online to some fansites such as musewiki, musebootlegs and microcuts. I still have the key information saved from those sites so I found only some new materials in this book
So many obscure facts, interesting stories, and tidbits I would have never known if it wasn't for this book. Matt Bellamy is such a fascinating person to read about, I've gotta say. This book could get boring at some points though; the endless interviews with their producers, etc. about trivial things like who they were signed to at the time, etc. etc. etc... I mean, its important, but sometimes these long paragraphs/interviews went on for so long. Still, this truly was a complete history of Muse... I don't think Beaumont missed a single fact or detail about them. After reading it, it truly made me feel inspired and wished I was as innovative and experimental as Bellamy, Wolstenholme and Howard. They truly are one of a kind.
veramente ben scritto. Unico difetto: alcune volte mi perdevo tra tutti quei paroloni che descrivevano i brani.
In alcuni momenti mi sentivo veramente partecipe della storia dei Muse. Un peccato per le note, che non ho letto del tutto perché trovavo scomodo saltare da una pagina all'altra, magari sarebbe stato meglio se fossero state messe a fine pagina piuttosto che a fine libro.
Feeling I needed a break from all the 'lit list' reading I've been doing, I decided to read this book I got for my birthday. Overall, I really enjoyed it, and it made me appreciateand think about muses music even more than I did before
I actually started and finished this book all in one day because I find Muse's journey so fascinating and they're one of my favourite bands so as you can imagine, I really couldn't put this down.
nothing was new information to me, hahaha. Love the little thanks to Musewiki at the end; where else would you need to go tbh! Major error about who was responsible for April's Fooling everyone right in the face with the Exogenesis 4 prank, though. hahaha.
This is a relatively entertaining, anecdotal history of the British alternative rock band 'Muse', that's worth reading for any fans of the bands music.