Album cover art for Absolution XX Anniversary by Muse
Photo Credit: Apple Music
On November 17th, English rock band Muse released Absolution XX Anniversary to
commemorate the twentieth anniversary of their third studio album, Absolution. The twenty six
track album includes Absolution’s original tracklist plus live and demo versions of songs from
the album.
The biggest difference between the 2003 and 2023 Absolution tracklist are the slight alterations
in production and engineering. To the casual music listener, the updated production of each song
wouldn’t stand out. When listened to with a quality pair of headphones (for this review, I used
JBL Tune 710BT over the ears headphones) the various nuances of the updated songs are
enhanced.
The best example of places where production is enhanced is on the track, ‘Butterflies and
Hurricanes’ when the backing orchestra kicks in before the piano solo. The enhanced
engineering on the song allows for the drama of the orchestra to flow from the left to right
headphones. In the original recording of ‘Butterflies and Hurricanes’ the orchestra wasn’t heard
as well in that specific part of the song.
A personal favorite on the album, ‘The Small Print’ received an enhancement in the acoustics
department. Originally, the percussion sounded flat on the song, without any sort of resonance in
the sound. Now, the drums hit even harder in a way that doesn’t drag the song down in any way.
Interestingly, the band decided to include a vocals and piano only version of the song, ‘Sing For
Absolution’ and a vocals, strings and piano version of ‘Butterflies and Hurricanes.’ Without the
percussion in these versions, there’s an underlying feeling of impending doom added to each
song that wasn’t there previously.
The band similarly enhanced the production of their 2001 album Origin of Symmetry for its
twentieth anniversary with Origin of Symmetry (XX Anniversary RemiXX). As a longtime Muse
fan, this release was a well anticipated treat.
