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The introduction to Absolution, as its name suggests.

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This phrase is German for “Hail to victory…march!” and was supposedly a common saying in Nazi Germany. As a band, Muse has always been fascinated with the rise and fall of governments and conspiracies about the New World Order.

“Intro” segues seamlessly into “Apocalypse Please;” it’s possible that the footsteps and officer commands are meant to invoke the sense that humanity is marching towards its doom.

German troops marching through Paris during the occupation of WWII. The evoked imagery of the Intro’s audio.

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“Interlude” is Muse’s shortest album track to date (the Absolution “Intro” is all sound effects and features no playing from the band) and goes immediately into “Hysteria” at the song’s conclusion.

Mirroring the album, Interlude is often played immediately before Hysteria in live shows.

The interlude samples the chord progression of the popular piece ‘Adagio for Strings’, by American composer Samuel Barber, on guitar with an extremely heavy fuzz effect.

It bears similarity to King Crimson’s “In the court of the Crimson King”.

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The chord progression in this interlude is based off of Samuel Barber’s famous “Adagio for Strings” (famously given electronic twists by William Orbit and Tiësto).

For any music theory buffs out there, “Interlude’s” progression is as follows: VI-C64-V-i-VI-iv-C64-V-i

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“Moses” was originally released as a B-side for the “In My Place” single. It is a love letter from Chris Martin to Gwyneth Paltrow and would later become the namesake of the couple’s first son.

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A hidden track tacked onto “Everything’s Not Lost”

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A summation of the previous three lines: Martin knows he’s made mistakes, and he knows he doesn’t deserve a second chance – but he wants to live life to the fullest, and he can’t do it if this girl isn’t by his side every step of the way.

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Fortunately for the speaker, he met someone who was able to help him work through his emotional struggles, freeing him from the oppressive noose and enabling him to get on with his life.

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The speaker feels that even if he confesses his true feelings to the world, it won’t change a thing about his situation

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“Noose” is probably a reference to the emotional “ball-and-chain” mentioned in the previous line and not an actual noose. Nevertheless, it sounds like the speaker has reached the end of his rope and is now standing on an edge (metaphorical or literal) deciding whether to take one last plunge.

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