Muse

Muse's singer, Matthew Bellamy, is still a dead ringer for Thom Yorke: his tone, his phrasing -- even the way he sucks in oxygen before delivering his affected syllables. Even so, Muse can no longer be considered the poor man's Radiohead, a tag that was reasonably justified until now. The British trio's excellent new disc, Black Holes and Revelations, suggests an alternate reality in which Radiohead got way more guitar-bombastic, maybe even a bit glam-metal, after OK Computer instead of retreating into an avant electro-noodlist shell. There are loads of immediate, over-the-top thrills on Revelations, chief among them "Knights of Cydonia," which whips up a muscular, epic spaghetti Western out of Swervedriver-y guitar bluster, horns and a galloping beat before exploding into the logical heir to the rockin'-est part of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Brought to the stage with all the ridiculous volume and showmanship that entails, Muse's flair for art-rock drama shows no signs of dissipating. Even the band's harshest detractors might find themselves hailing these thieves.