| "Supermassive Black Hole" | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Muse | ||||||||||||||||||||
| from the album Black Holes and Revelations | ||||||||||||||||||||
| B-side | "Crying Shame" | |||||||||||||||||||
| Released | 19 June 2006 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Format | 7" vinyl, CD single, DVD single | |||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Electronic rock, new prog, funk rock | |||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 3:29 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Label | A&E, Helium 3 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Matthew Bellamy | |||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | Rich Costey | |||||||||||||||||||
| Muse singles chronology | ||||||||||||||||||||
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"Supermassive Black Hole" is a song by English alternative rock band Muse, featured on their fourth studio album Black Holes and Revelations. When released as the lead single from the album in June 2006, backed with "Crying Shame", the song charted at number four on the UK Singles Chart, the highest singles chart position the band has achieved to date in the United Kingdom. In October 2011, NME placed it at number 74 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".[1]
The song was also used in the 2008 movie Twilight in the baseball game sequence, and subsequently was used in the soundtrack. On the 8th of May, 2008, the song was released as downloadable content for the rhythm game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, along with "Stockholm Syndrome" and "Exo-Politics". A version of the song was also featured on FIFA 07's playlist, this version of the song contains a more distorted guitar.[2] It is also the only Muse song to feature a distorted snarl. Back in 2006 this song was also used during an episode in the TV series Supernatural. It was also featured at the beginning of the Series 6 Doctor Who episode "The Rebel Flesh"[3] . It was also used as a wake-up for Space Shuttle Atlantis astronauts on the vessel's presumed final day in space, May 26, 2010.[4]
The song was covered by UK progressive metal band Threshold on their 2007 album Dead Reckoning, as a bonus track.
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Bellamy (Muse vocalist, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter) said that the song was "the most different to anything we've ever done." Influences included bands such as The Beatles, Millionaire, dEUS, Evil Superstars and Soulwax. Bellamy said that "these groups were the first to mix R&B rhythms with alternative guitar. We've added a bit of Prince and Kanye West. The drumbeat isn't rocky, with Rage Against the Machine riffs underneath. We’ve mixed a lot of things in this track, with a bit of electronica; it’s different, slow, quite funky."[5]
In an interview with NME, Bellamy said "I was going out dancing in clubs around New York. That helped create tracks like 'Supermassive Black Hole'. Franz Ferdinand would have done it very well, with that dance type beat going on mixed with alternative guitar and I've always wanted to find that."[6]
The single's accompanying music video shows the band playing in a small furniture shop, clad in masks. This is intercut with images of dancers in Zentai suits which are then unzipped at the end to reveal beings made of space. The video was directed by Floria Sigismondi, who has directed videos for alternative bands such as Marilyn Manson, The White Stripes, Interpol, Katy Perry, Incubus and The Cure. Sigismondi described the video as replicating a recurring dream she has experienced, in which dancers wearing masks of their own faces or mirrors and full body suits fill a dark mirrored room. There are also flashes of a black circle, a depiction of a supermassive black hole.
"Supermassive Black Hole" was the first single released from Black Holes and Revelations in the UK on 19 June 2006, available on vinyl, CD, DVD and digital download formats. It peaked at #4 on the UK Singles Chart, making it their most popular single released in the UK to date. In the US it was the third single to be released, on April 23, 2007. The single reached #6 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart, making it the fifth highest-charting Muse single in the US behind "Starlight", "Uprising", "Resistance"and "Undisclosed Desires".
The single's B-side, "Crying Shame", was first performed on 19 December 2004 at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre. The key was changed during the 2005 tour, and the studio track omits the riff found in the earlier live version. The lyrics also appear to have changed, and this is the first studio release in which lead singer Bellamy uses profanity.
All songs written and composed by Matthew Bellamy.
| 7" vinyl (HEL3001); CD single (HEL3001CD) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "Supermassive Black Hole" | 3:29 | |||||||
| 2. | "Crying Shame" | 2:38 | |||||||
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Total length:
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6:07 | ||||||||
| DVD single (HEL3001DVD) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "Supermassive Black Hole" (music video) | 3:29 | |||||||
| 2. | "Supermassive Black Hole" | 3:29 | |||||||
| 3. | "Supermassive Black Hole" (making-of video) | 12:04 | |||||||
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Total length:
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18:05 | ||||||||
| Chart (2006) | Peak |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart | 4 |
| Danish Singles Chart[7] | 7 |
| Italian Singles Chart[8] | 9 |
| Finnish Singles Chart[9] | 10 |
| Irish Singles Chart[10] | 16 |
| Swiss Singles Chart[11] | 33 |
| Dutch Singles Chart[12] | 39 |
| French Singles Chart[13] | 51 |
| European Hot 100 | 8 |
| Australian Singles Chart[14] | 34 |
| Chart (2007) | Peak |
| US Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks[15] | 6 |
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