Muse uncertain over album format

By Damian Jones
Newsbeat reporter

Matt Bellamy promised to revolutionise the way Muse release their music

Muse have decided against releasing their next album in the same manner as Radiohead.

The band, who have just started working on their fifth record in Italy, have admitted they are unsure how the LP will eventually be released.

Although they praised Radiohead's download format where fans named their price, drummer Dominic Howard said they were unlikely to follow suit.

He added: "We won't be doing the same thing as Radiohead no."

His comments come after singer Matt Bellamy recently promised to revolutionise the way they release their music on future records.

The singer said they were likely to ditch the traditional album format to focus on individual tracks.

Traditional format

But Howard has backtracked on Bellamy's original comments.

He told Newsbeat: "The traditional format of releasing an album on CD is not the most common thing a new music buyer or listener would typically go and get from a shop thesedays.

Everyone is plucking ideas out of the sky and any band can decide how they release an album Dominic Howard Muse drummer

"Not that we're against the concept of releasing an album in the traditional format at all. It's just the way the world and technology is evolving, it's presenting a canvas to do whatever you want and just release music as and when it is ready to release. It can happen much more organically.

"If we group a bunch of tracks together it's because they're meant to be together as a unit."

Unconventional manner

A string of artists have already released their most recent records in an unconventional manner.

Prince gave away his album Planet Earth free with a tabloid newspaper, Radiohead invited fans to name their price for In Rainbows and The Charlatans have made their album You Cross My Path available for download free of charge.

Howard admitted that he was excited by the way bands are experimenting with how they release their music in various formats.

"The way Radiohead released their album was interesting and it's great because the concept of releasing music or an album changes every month, it's evolving so quickly," he said.

"Everyone is plucking ideas out of the sky and any band can decide how they release an album. It's all good, I'm all for it."

Muse have started working on their fifth album

Ball rolling

Muse are currently in the early stages of constructing tracks for the follow up to Black Holes And Revelations.

"We've started writing songs for the new album and we're just starting to get the ball rolling," Howard explained.

"We just worked on a few tracks literally last week. It's really early days but it already sounds wicked and I'm really excited about it."

The drummer also said that he was unsure whether the sound of the record will be different from their last album.

He added: "At this stage it's really too early to decide what direction we're taking because that either happens very naturally or it's something you can really adjust and manoeuvre.

"But before you start doing that you need to get a bunch of tracks together to make that manoeuvre happen."