Supermassive Black Hole (3:30)

Supermassive Black Hole is the first single from Black Holes and Revelations, released on 19 June 2006. Its B-side is Crying Shame. The song has been available online since 9 May following a radio premiere the previous day. The single reached #4 in the UK Singles Chart, making it the highest charting single by the band to date. The track was mixed at Townhouse Studios, London. It was released as the third U.S. single on April 23, 2007.

Influences

The song showcases the album’s experimentation with other genres. “It’s the most different to anything we’ve ever done,” Matthew Bellamy told French magazine Rock Mag on 3 March 2006, “We’ve had some belgian influences: Millionaire, dEUS, Evil Superstars, Soulwax… 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.”

Speaking about the album 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.”