Muse

While some bands set their sights on raising the rafters, Muse have attempted to rattle the far reaches of the galaxy — and judging by these introductory Essentials, the Devon three-piece appears to have set out their stall somewhere off the shoulder of Orion. The group’s imagery belongs to realms beyond our ken, and the impassioned sound, especially on “Starlight” from 2006’s tractor beam of delight, Black Holes and Revelations, is a blinding revelation in itself. Soar with Muse over the surface of the sun, and beyond, in Next Steps.

Here, we’ve stashed a blast of early Muse (1999’s “Cave”, the band’s second single), as well as a live version of the galloping progger “Knights of Cydonia” and a couple of covers that treat the source material as wholly expendable — the Smith’s “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” exists on an elevated threat level, replacing the original’s delicate mandolin with an aftershock of fuzzed-up guitar, while “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” shoots off in the opposite direction from Frankie Valli once the amped-up grind starts to kick in.

While teenagers in the mid-‘90s, Matthew Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard cut their teeth on the Devon rock scene under a succession of monikers (including Gothic Plague, Fixed Penalty and Rocket Baby Dolls) before ultimately settling on Muse and storming the world’s arenas with a sound as super-massive as any in the contemporary rock universe. Defined by Bellamy’s sky-scraping vocal, and driven by all manner of influences (from minimalist composer Philip Glass to overblown operatic rockers Queen), Muse have illuminated the 21st century with radioactive rocket flares of sound: here are some of them.