“Supermassive Black Hole” by Muse

"Supermassive Black Hole" was the lead single from Black Holes and Revelations, Muse's fourth album, and in the summer of 2006 it caught the English band in a strutting mood. Matt Bellamy wrote the words and the music on his own, and he built the song on a fuzzed-out, stop-start riff that swaggers where you expect it to soar, a slinky funk-rock groove with a sci-fi sheen.

Bellamy plays guitar and keyboards and sings lead in a teasing, high-wire croon, while Dominic Howard handles drums and percussion with the pocket of a disco rhythm section and Christopher Wolstenholme's bass throbs underneath his backing vocals. Rich Costey co-produced it with the band and mixed it himself, giving the low end a glossy, rubbery punch that made the track as fit for a club as for a stadium. Costey and Claudius Mittendorfer did the recording.

It was the band's best showing ever on the UK singles chart, peaking at number four, and it drew a Kerrang! Award nomination for Best Single the year it came out. In 2011 NME slotted it in at number 74 when it counted down the best tracks of the preceding 15 years. "Crying Shame" rode along as the B-side, and the album campaign moved on to "Starlight" next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.