Somewhere between Muse’s first and second album, singer/guitarist Matt Bellamy decided that if the trio from Teignmouth, UK were going to take their band seriously then they were going to do it by having a seriously good time. In what might now be viewed as the most uncharacteristic act of their career, Muse had dialed down their eccentricities on the angsty, straightforward rock of 1999 debut Showbiz but they blew a hole in their comfort zone on its 2001 follow-up. Origin of Symmetry was the sound of Muse embracing their wild sense of ridiculousness, where they melded fantastical space rock, prog-metal wig-outs, psychedelic ambience, huge riffs, classical motifs, and epic, exhilarating choruses. Bellamy’s resolution for the band to stop moping around and revel in rock ’n’ roll chaos played right into the approach they took on their second record. This needed to be all and everything. No one who heard Showbiz expected Muse to come back with an album where they sounded like a crazed cross between Queen, Rage Against the Machine, Pink Floyd, and Johann Sebastian Bach. No one who heard Origin of Symmetry would ever try and second-guess them again. Non-stop touring to support Showbiz had turned Muse into a thrilling and explosive live band and it was something they were keen to capture on tape. They did it with the first go. With its Bill & Ted-at-the-opera riff, anthemic chorus and pummeling groove, “Plug in Baby” was a bold and brilliant line in the sand for the trio. Recorded with producer David Bottrill at Ridge Farm Studios, it was laid down with two other key cuts: the gothic future-rock of “New Born” and the swirling, surging “Bliss.” These songs would become the pillars around which the rest of Origin of Symmetry was constructed. Muse had shelved their more experimental cuts while making Showbiz but confident that they already had three killer singles in the can, they now went the other way. They were egged on by John Leckie, the Showbiz and The Bends producer overseeing the rest of the sessions after Bottrill departed to work with TOOL. Now the group’s ambition truly began to unfurl, such as on the Rachmaninoff-inspired neo-classical rock of “Space Dementia” and “Citizen Erased”’s mix of ferocious riffing and orchestral soundscapes. Just as its sonics would become a blueprint the band would build from on future records, so too were its themes, Bellamy’s lyrics covering technology, progress, evolution, physics, religion, and existential crises as grand theater. It was released in June 2001 and went on to sell over two million copies, but not everyone was won over. Unimpressed by Bellamy’s singing style, the band’s US label Maverick demanded that he rerecord his vocals and get rid of the falsetto. An attempt to redo “Plug in Baby,” however, never captured the exuberance of the original and was shelved. Label and band parted ways and Origin of Symmetry didn’t get a US release until 2005. By that point, Muse were one of the world’s biggest rock bands. Here is the album that gave them the impetus. Origin of Symmetry is where Muse as you know them now truly began.