Track Listing

1. Sunburn
2. Muscle Museum
3. Filip
4. Cave
5. Showbiz
6. Unintended
7. Uno
8. Sober
9. Escape
10. Overdue
11. Hate This And I'll Love You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35861 in Music
• Published on: 2000-02-28
• Released on: 2006-11-06
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
It's practically impossible to mention Muse without also bringing up Radiohead. Listening to Muse's debut, it's easy to see why. Showbiz was produced by John Leckie, the producer of The Bends, and features the frightfully Yorke-esque choiral falsetto of front-man Matthew Bellamy, running the whole emotional gamut of unhappiness from sincere upset to outright dysfunction. New ground, it's fair to say, remains distinctly unbroken. To Muse's credit, though, they do this angst thing pretty well. "Cave" is a wonderful, terrible epic, replete with rank after rank of bludgeoning guitars, "Muscle Museum" builds up swathes of complex baroque noise, and "Escape"--well, it's a surrogate "No Surprises" with a firework finale, and should keep us ticking over until the next Radiohead album, thank you very much. See? You can't escape the comparison. But at least Showbiz wears it well.--Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

Some really overlooked classics on this overlooked cd.
Just check out the clean guzzling bass line on Muscle Museum. The song sets up the perfect suburbian distopia and turns into nothing short of the perfect pop rock single when Matt's voice melts into a suspended guitar solo.

Elsewhere theres the title track Showbiz, an epic of enclosing tension and Cave a similar epic flooding with teenage anxt.

The back end of this record reveals more wonderfully rounded heavy yet alternative rock songs. The lyrics are spot on all the way through especially in Escape and Overdue.

Theres a lush little acoustic ballad too in Unintended, so good they still sing it on tour.

This is where Muse started off, with a CD just as good as all the others, sure the songs might not be as well known as Stockholm Syndrome or Hysteria but then again not everyones debut can be as publicised as the Arctic Monkeys.

Greatest debut ever?!
Although I have loved Muse for a few years, I wasn't very interested in their debut. I could hear potential but the songs I knew a little bit about sounded like they were written by less accomplished musicians or inexperienced men who had less to say. However, I got into this album when I began to change my mind about the track, 'Muscle Museum'. I took a chance and bought 'Showbiz' as it was only £6 and I am SO glad I did.

This has to be one of the best debut albums ever composed. It is almost as musically impressive as Jeff Buckley's 'Grace' and, like Buckley's debut, the songs grow on you all the time which makes the album very addictive. The Muse sound is less original, of course, as it was less developed at the time, but the material is still very strong. By the way, although I do agree with some of the Radiohead comparisons, they are ridiculously overstated.

Almost every song has something to offer. After the singles, I love the depressing brilliance of the title track and the heavy-yet-melodic sound of 'Fillip'. Other listeners may find hidden gems elsewhere. That is why this album is so good. As long as you like Muse, you are almost guaranteed to enjoy something from this brilliant debut. It may not have set the world alight when it was released but the spark is certainly there.

Blown away
I purchased this album only a few months ago - can't believe how talented Matt is - at such a young age. Amazing lyrics and composition - i love this album. I love the track Showbiz - great if you're having a bad day - i just go berserk listening to it - fantastic!!!