1001 songs you must hear before you die - Supermassive Black Hole (2006)

(Book publication date c.2013)

Writer: Matt Bellamy
Producer: Rich Costey, Muse
Label: Helium 3
Album: Black Holes & Revelations (2006)

"I was going out dancing in clubs around New York. That helped create tracks like 'Supermassive Black Hole'."
Matt Bellamy, 2006

With their first three albums, Muse accomplished the impossible: they made it okay to like prog rock again. Unexpectedly, the fourth - Black Holes & Revelations - seemed as appropriate for rock club dance floors as it was for Dungeons & Dragons tournaments. The album featured acoustic balladry and new wave influences, but the most drastic departure was what drummer Dominic Howard described as "Prince-influenced, groove-based, rock weirdness." For a band long saddled with the "next Radiohead" tag, 'Supermassive Black Hole' was a shocking turn of events. 
 The song mixes swaggering rock - highlighted by Matt Bellamy's cobra-like strikes of twisting guitar and Howard's steady stomps - with a funky groove. "It's the most different to anything we've ever done," Bellamy told Rockmag. 'We've had some Belgian influences: Millionaire, dEUS, Evil Superstars, Soulwax...We've added a bit of Prince and Kanye West...with Rage Against The Machine riffs underneath. We've mixed a lot of things in this track, with a bit of electronica. It's different - quite funny."
 Above this glorious racket was Bellamy's pristine falsetto, singing lyrics that were variously interpreted as a twisted love song or his reaction to fame. The latter was boosted by the song's inclusion in the first Twilight movie. "[Director] Catherine Hardwicke wanted to use 'Supermassive Black Hole' in a very long scene, with not a lot of dialogue in the foreground," Muse's manager Cliff Burnstein told Billboard. "We thought. 'This is fun - this is a nice woman who writes these books, she's a fan of ours, let's get involved in this'. No one was really thinking at the time. "This is a huge opportunity".   

Influenced by: Do Somethin' - Britney Spears (2005)
Influence on: Where Did All the Love Go? - Kasabian (2009)
Covered by: Threshold (2007), Billy Lunn (2009), Tiffany Page (2010), Theshold (2010)

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