Origin of Symmetry is the second studio album by the English rock band Muse, released on 18 June 2001 through Taste Media. It was produced by John Leckie, who produced Muse's debut album, Showbiz (1999), and David Bottrill.
Origin of Symmetry reached number three on the UK Albums Chart[1] and was certified platinum.[2] Four singles were released: "Plug In Baby", "New Born", "Bliss", and "Hyper Music" / "Feeling Good". As of 2018, Origin of Symmetry had sold more than two million copies worldwide. It received mostly positive reviews, with critics praising its blend of rock and classical music. It has since been named one of the greatest rock albums of the 2000s by several publications.
For the album's 20th anniversary in 2021, Muse released a remixed and remastered version, Origin of Symmetry: XX Anniversary RemiXX.
The album title derives from the 1994 book Hyperspace by the theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, which suggests the title The Origin of Symmetry for a future book about the discovery of supersymmetry, a reference to On the Origin of Species. According to the Muse songwriter, Matt Bellamy: "Everyone's been writing about the origin of life so now they'll start looking at the origin of symmetry; there's a certain amount of stability in the universe and to find out where it originates from would be to find out if God exists."[8] Whereas the Showbiz lyrics had "wallowed in heartbroken angst", Bellamy's lyrics moved to "sci-fi surrealism".[9]
Recording
After completing the Showbiz tour, Muse recorded "Plug In Baby", "Bliss", "New Born" and "Darkshines" with the producer David Bottrill, forming the "backbone" of Origin of Symmetry. To capture their live energy, Muse recorded together as a band, with some overdubs.[9]
Having mainly recorded Showbiz with a Gibson Les Paul guitar, Bellamy recorded Origin of Symmetry using a custom Manson guitar equipped with a built-in Fuzz Factory, a fuzz distortion effect.[9] It was the first of many collaborations between Bellamy and Manson.[9]
Release
Origin of Symmetry was released on 18 June 2001.[10] It was originally scheduled for release in the United States through Maverick Records, which had also released Showbiz. However, Muse left Maverick when they demanded Bellamy rerecord the album with less falsetto, and it was not released in the US until 2005.[11]
Origin of Symmetry received mainly positive reviews. Roy Wilkinson of Q praised it as an "astonishing record... where extra-terrestrial fascinations meet the classical world's more unhinged impulses", adding that "comparisons with Radiohead that dogged Muse's early career now seem all but obsolete".[19] Roger Morton of NME called the album a "reinvention of grunge as a neo-classical, high gothic future rock, full of flambéed pianolas and white-knuckle electric camp ... It's apparent that Muse can handle their brutal arias."[17]Q named Origin of Symmetry one of the 50 best albums of 2001,[22] while Kerrang! named it the ninth-best.[23]
The Guardian's Betty Clarke panned Origin of Symmetry as "unbelievably overblown, self-important and horrible".[24] The Stylus critic Tyler Martin felt that Muse were "very good at their craft", but that "the constant overplaying of everything waters it all down immensely".[20]
Legacy
Origin of Symmetry has made appearances on lists of the greatest rock albums of the 2000s. In 2006, Q named it the 74th-greatest album of all time,[25] and in 2008 Q readers voted it the 28th-best British album. Kerrang! named it the 20th-best British rock album and the 13th best album of the 21st century.[26]
In a retrospective review, Natalie Shaw of BBC Music wrote that Origin of Symmetry "shows a band with the drive and unfettered ambition to create a standalone marvel which not only awakens the ghosts and clichés from prog's pompous past, but entirely adds its own voice". He said that many elements of the band's later albums, such as Black Holes and Revelations (2006), could be traced back to the album.[27] The author Amy Britton argued that on Origin of Symmetry Bellamy "progressed [his band]'s sound so much that he earned a new title – this generation's guitar hero," highlighting "Plug In Baby" and "New Born".[28] In a retrospective review in 2021, the Pitchfork critic Jazz Monroe wrote: "Muse were playing melodrama as teenage realism, an extremely, ridiculously honest noise ... By combining goth vulnerability with sci-fi scale and hard-rock drama, [Origin of Symmetry] captures a paradox of young romance: on one hand, Bellamy sounds wracked with despair, but he proclaims his heartbreak with the glee of an ecstatic preacher."[18]
On 26 and 28 August 2011, Muse performed a special set at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, which consisted of the band playing Origin of Symmetry from start to finish, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the album.[29]
Reissues
On 6 December, 2019, Origin of Symmetry was remastered and reissued as part of the Origin of Muse boxset, alongside Showbiz, demos, live performances and other material.[30] On 18 June 2021, the album's 20th anniversary, Muse released a remixed and remastered version, Origin of Symmetry: XX Anniversary RemiXX.[31] A collaboration with the producer Rich Costey, who worked on several later Muse albums, it features a "more open, dynamic and less crushed sound".[32] The new mixes also restore elements that were originally muted or obscured, such as string sections on "Space Dementia", "Citizen Erased" and "Megalomania", and a harpsichord on "Micro Cuts". The album features new cover artwork by Sujin Kim.[31] The Pitchfork critic Jazz Monroe described the reissue as "definitive ... even more colossal and timeless".[18]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
