Annotations for Supermassive Black Hole

Lyric: Ooh, baby, don’t you know I suffer?
 Ooh, baby, can’t you hear me moan?
Annotation:
These lines are talking about how the man suffers because of the relationship with the woman. It’s a fatal attraction. He wants her to let him go. There’s definitely a sexual innuendo here, too.

Lyric: You’re the queen of the superficial
 How long before you tell the truth?
Annotation:
Could be referring to his/ her superficial looks and how he/her  could be playing hard to get

Lyric: Ooh, you set my soul alight
 Ooh, you set my soul alight
Annotation:
This line has an ambiguous meaning: it could mean that Bellamy simply has a burning passion for his partner; or it could mean that they are a serious danger to Bellamy’s mental health as they are actively “burning his soul” away like celestial bodies are destroyed when sucked into a black hole.

Lyric: I thought I was a fool for no one
 But, ooh, baby, I’m a fool for you
Annotation:
Alluding to the chorus of the song, Matt is a superstar, which is a giant and unstoppable force of the galaxies… or at least until it meets a supermassive black hole, the only thing able to defeat such a large celestial object. Nothing can escape a black hole, not even light. Essentially, he’s comparing himself to a superstar and the one who he’s fallen for to a supermassive black hole – she’s sucked him in, and he’s unable to escape, even though nobody else has been able to render him so helpless.

Lyric: And the superstar’s sucked into the supermassive
Annotation:
Interesting pun between a ‘star’ in terms of astronomy and a powerful, energetic person (possibly important in the  star system as well). Bellamy depicts himself as a star whose only vulnerability is this person who can soften him or hurt him, just like a black hole is the only thing that can erase a star.

Lyric: Supermassive black hole
 Supermassive black hole
 Supermassive black hole
 Supermassive black hole
Annotation:
A supermassive black hole is in fact a real thing. It is the largest type of black hole, a region of spacetime so dense that its gravity draws in everything, including light. Supermassive black holes are up to hundreds of thousands to billions of solar masses and so far are found at the center of every currently known galaxy. This includes our Milky Way and the speculate SMBH is somewhere around Sagittarius A.  Saying this woman is like a supermassive black hole is saying that her allure and her draw is powerful, the most powerful draw there is. But also as powerful as it is, it’s just as dangerous. She’ll draw you in and suck you up, metaphorically.

Lyric: Glaciers melting in the dead of night
Annotation:
Perhaps she is the glacier. Cold, dangerous and with much more beneath the surface than first meets the eye. She is “melting” from the heat of their passion “in the dead of night”. This provokes strong imagery as one would usually expect a glacier to melt in the hot sun, not the cold night. This coincides with the feeling of confusion he has about their relationship and why she is so compelling. It may also signify that she only shows her vulnerability in the dark where no one else can see, but in the light she keeps her cold demeanour intact. Or maybe the glaciers do not represent her at all. Maybe the idea of the glaciers melting all around him simply adds to the sense of helplessness and chaos as he is sucked into the supermassive black hole. Another possibile interpretation is the following: glaciers are very big, very hard things to melt, so the passion of the protagonists is literally so burning it could melt glaciers.

Lyric: You caught me under false pretenses
 How long before you let me go?
Annotation:
The woman caught the man by lying to him. He wants her to let him go, but he is caught under her spell, and is unable to leave under his own will. This fatal attraction is compared to the gravitational attraction of a supermassive black hole  no object can escape from.

Lyric: [Chorus: Chris Wolstenholme, Matt Bellamy & Dominic Howard]
Annotation:
If you listen closely, during the chorus beginning at about 2:40, you can hear Dom saying “dead-dead-dead-dead” or a vocal noise supplement “de-de-de-de”, similar to a cappela, in the background.

Lyric: [Bridge: Chris Wolstenholme]
Annotation:
Bassist Chris Wolstenholme sings this part, and his whispery and distorted vocals became more common later on, especially in songs such as  “Reapers”,  “Pressure” and  “Break It To Me”. At live shows, it’s usually Chris who whispers this part.  Chris singing backing vocals in Nürnberg in 2018.

Lyric: Into the supermassive
Annotation:
Dom Howard, Muse’s drummer, says this. He uses vocoders to “robotify” his voice.  This is clearly demonstrated in  live performances.

