H.A.A.R.P

Muse's studio releases have generally struck me as being merely good. They're certainly far better than a lot of other mainstream rock music out there, but they also come across as being a bit by-the-numbers and predictable, and the energy level isn't what the material demands. I'll listen to them occasionally, but they're generally lacking the fire that's necessary to keep a recording in regular rotation for me.

The same can't be said, however, for the band's live performances. From start to finish, on both the CD and the DVD here, the band's performance is absolutely incendiary. Indeed, I'm having a difficult time thinking of many other modern rock acts who have this much energy live. Essentially every other song on here is vastly superior to its studio counterpart, and on many of them the band stretches out and improvises at length, making the CD and DVD far from retreads of the same material.

My only complaint is, as is the case with many modern rock recordings, with the sound quality; it suffers from the same "loudness war" issues that most modern rock recordings do, although fortunately it's not a Death Magnetic or Raw Power-level disaster. Regardless, it does keep the set from being as purely enjoyable as it ought to be.

It's not enough to keep me from recommending this set, though. If you acquire only one Muse recording, you should unquestionably make it this one. Indeed, I'd say this set is so good as to make the studio versions effectively superfluous. Now if only they'd release a set collecting the highlights of their later work...