“Apocalypse Please” by Muse
There have been various explanations offered of Muse’s “Apocalypse Please” song. But what is abundantly clear premise-wise is that the vocalist is thoroughly under the impression that “this is the end of the world”.
Now when people make such proclamations, they are usually doing so from one of two perspectives. One would be inspired by religious texts which prophesy such an event. And/or the individual would be analyzing the world himself and come to the conclusion that at its current trajectory, it isn’t likely to last much longer.
On “Apocalypse Please”, this vocalist comes off as being more along the lines of the latter. So what he is rather doing is calling on “something biblical” to come and intervene and halt said trajectory or “pull us through”, as he puts it.
So the singer doesn’t fear divine intervention as far as the “apocalypse” is concerned but instead desires it, i.e. a higher power showing us the way not to destroy ourselves, so to speak.
Summary
In this song, we find Matt Bellamy desperately in search of “a miracle” from above. He hopes that this miracle can stave off the imminent destruction of the world.
Facts about “Apocalypse Please”
This track came out as part of Muse’s album “Absolution”. The whole project is a product of Taste Media and East West Records. The entire project came out on the 15th of September 2003. Later in 2004, the song was also issued as the fifth single from its project.
The following songwriters (who are the core members of Muse) wrote and co-produced this song:
- Matt Bellamy
- Dominic Howard
- Chris Wolstenholme
The song’s other producer is Rich Costey.
This track was reworked from its original version, which at first featured an orchestra. It is interesting to note that Howard actually played the drums on this track in a swimming pool.
Muse’s “Absolution” Album
Muse released their third studio offering, “Absolution”, on September 15 of 2003. This album cuts across a variety of rock genres including alternative rock and progressive rock.
“Apocalypse Please” is the second track and fifth single of “Absolution”. Actually the entire album was promoted by a total of six singles.
- “Stockholm Syndrome”
- “Time Is Running Out”
- “Hysteria”
- “Sing for Absolution”
- “Butterflies and Hurricanes”
Commercially, “Absolution” could easily be described as one of Muse’s most-successful projects. A testament to the album’s success is its dominance on the album charts across several European nations including soaring to number 1 in the UK and France.
Despite its remarkable performance in Europe, “Absolution” achieved, relatively, less success in the US. There, it only managed a peak of number 107 on the Billboard 200. That said, this project became the group’s first-ever studio album to enter the charts in the US.
Below is a look at how the project performed on the main album charts in other regions:
- The Netherlands – 2
- Switzerland – 3
- Italy – 4
- Austria – 5
- Belgium – 7
- Portugal – 7
