The Art of CDs #3: Muse - Showbiz

A Short Introduction:

Another decade-old album, but this time by a band that's continued to be a personal favorite for quite a few years.

The Art of CDs 3:

Artist: Muse

Album: Showbiz

Released: 1999

Acquired: 2004

Reason for buying: I stumbled upon "Time is Running Out" on the internet (back in the days before youtube, mind you) and found a bunch of tracks from their Absolution album. After a couple listens I decided it was worth purchasing. Much to my dismay, I couldn't find the album anywhere. No one had heard of it or the band. Then I found Showbiz entirely by accident shoved in the back of a shelf at a Sam Goody. I had no clue they had more than one album and I quite liked the cover art, so I picked it up.

Top 5 Tracks (in no particular order): Showbiz (#7), Escape (#10), Sunburn (#1), Cave (#6), Muscle Museum (#2)

Packaging:
Aside from the slight fuzziness of the cover art and the lack of lyrics in the booklet, this is honestly one of my favorite cd package designs ever. I just love the way the motif is carried throughout the book and case. And okay, yes, I like the sci-fi gimmick... it's fun...

Click "read more" to see images, etc...




Images:



^The Cover. Love the art and colors... don't really love the blur effect on the art, though. Could've been a printing error or something I suppose...





^Back Cover and Track Listing. Can you tell it's from the late 90s with all the shiny clothes? ;)




^The full package. The CD design is what really stands out to me. Check out how the title track is flipped out...





^Inside the booklet. Song titles with select lyrics and... a really dodgy photo for the center spread.  Well, not every design is perfect...

Overall Opinion: The cd was an acquired taste. One of the things I like about Muse is that every one of their cds has a slightly different sound, but this one is a pretty big departure stylistically from the one I wanted to buy originally. My first time listening, it wasn't until I hit "Showbiz" that it felt like the same band... but a few more listens and there's a lot of good songs on the cd. It's not my favorite of their's musically, but I still love it.

Anything Else? Yes. Cave 2009. Piano version instead of guitar version. It's awesome. (Hopefully one of these days I'll get to see this band live... I seem to have an uncanny ability to miss their tours/not be able to acquire tickets. Oh well.)

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