Muse has had one of the most interesting, yet entirely perplexing musical paths I have ever seen from a band. Once upon a time, they were just creeping up from their British homeland, trying to make a name for themselves starting with local gigs and the release of their debut album, Showbiz. While they didn’t really know who they were trying to be at first (though most people liked to think of them as a knockoff Radiohead, due to front man Matt Bellamy sounding kind of like Thom Yorke at times), Muse crafted their own identities through the albums that propelled them into the spotlight, Origin of Symmetry and Absolution. Who could forget the prog-rock inspired tracks like “Citizen Erased” and “New Born”? When Muse first had entered the tiny confines of my musical knowledge, it was through their more alternative oriented hits like “Hysteria” and “Stockholm Syndrome”. Most fans would agree that these two albums are the peak of Muse’s career, and would consider it their curse, for most agree that afterwards Muse started on a very different path.
It was when Muse decided to delve into the magic of technology that they started experimenting in a whole new way, but with mixed results. Where Black Holes and Revelations was a space rock trip that liked to dabble in soft rock undertones and the occasional progressive flair (”Knights of Cydonia” comes to mind), The Resistance was incredibly heavy handed and incredibly melodramatic, with the politically charged anthem “Uprising” segueing oddly into the pop-inspired “Resistance” and “Undisclosed Desires”, and then back into another anthem with “United States of Eurasia”, and then onwards into synthesizer heavy territory and a jarring transition into classical inspired pieces like “I Belong To You” and the entirety of the “Exogenesis” trilogy. While the former is still seen with much fondness, The Resistance tends to be a mixed bag for most.
While experimentation and change keeps a band’s sound interesting, it’s hard to defend the half Queen tribute, half dubstep tribute mess that was The 2nd Law. While I personally think tracks like “Supremacy”, “Animals”, “Explorers”, and “Liquid State” were gems in otherwise murky waters, the rest of the album sounded like a science experiment gone wrong that ended in a explosion not unlike one in a cartoon. “Panic Station” and “Big Freeze” sounded like Queen and U2 birthed some kind of abomination that was like Freddie Mercury tried to perform a U2 anthem and it just comes out all wrong. “Survival” is cheesy, but decent enough. “Follow Me”, and both of the “The 2nd Law” tracks were Matt’s big electronic dubstep fusion experiment that at times was really interesting and at others was really dismal. This was easily Muse’s worst effort, and while it was admirable that they were trying to delve into somewhat of an ambitious territory, it just didn’t seem right for them to follow a trend that they unsuccessfully tried to embody.
So, when Matt Bellamy promised a comeback to rock n’ roll instrumentals without all the experimental electronic layering, there was reason to be excited. While I don’t like the idea of believing a band should try to replicate their earlier works, Muse needed to get back to their strengths while still approaching an interesting direction musically. To achieve this, they decided to write a concept album. At the time, all people knew was that it had to do with the empathy gap and war. Muse was not foreign to existential concepts, but I suppose it’s worth pointing out that after Absolution, Matt Bellamy’s lyricism tended to drift into the world of political focus, especially with The Resistance. If “Uprising” wasn’t obvious enough with Matt Bellamy chanting “we will be victorious” to the sound of a marching crowd, then I don’t know what to tell you. If the question was, “how can Muse get any more political than this?”, then the answer would be by making a concept album with an incredibly heavy political message. As such, Drones was born, 53 minutes in length.
While Drones deals with interesting ideas, such as the emotional gap between real life tragedy and people behind the barrier of technology, and the sparks that initiate conflict such as revolution and war, there couldn’t be a more heavy handed way of trying to express these ideas than to delve into the world of politics. The story of the album is about an unnamed individual who feels emptiness towards their surroundings, and as such, are easily coaxed into becoming a puppet for “dark forces” (as Bellamy puts it) to commit horrendous acts without consequence. Most of these acts, as you could imagine, are killing people, but the “drones” Bellamy talks about in this story are not vehicles but conditioned psychopaths that don’t feel the repercussions of the act. However, the protagonist finds that they can’t allow themselves to continue being controlled as a “human drone”, so they defect and begin a revolt to take down these “dark oppressors” and to overcome their effects on the world around them. While this is a decent concept at best, the obvious political message that isn’t shrouded with even a hint of subtlety spoils the impact.
Instrumentally, Drones is Muse at their best since even Absolution. While there are tracks that hint back to the softer side of Black Holes and Revelations such as “Mercy” and “Aftermath” which are more synth driven and upbeat, there are some real classic guitar driven Muse material that really takes on identities of their own. “Reapers” is a 6 minute guitar driven power ballad about the consequences of the protagonist’s actions, with instrumentals that hit harder than they have in a long time, emulating what made songs like “Stockholm Syndrome” so great and twisting that to make something even more fresh. “The Handler” utilize dark and brooding guitar and bass parts along with heavy drumming to propel Bellamy’s crooning acceptance towards the fate of becoming a human drone. Even after the breaking point in the album, Muse brings an anthem that puts “Uprising” to great shame with “Defector”, which maintains an upbeat tone with a hint of bittersweet from the rough instrumentals and the same kind of hard-hitting drumming that would support a march against oppression. The backup vocals have a strong presence in these tracks along with most of the album, and definitely shine in both this track and the album opener, “Dead Inside”. The biggest surprise to me was the staggering 10 minute climax, “The Globalist”, which starts out with the kind of whistling you’d hear in a spaghetti western, calling back to tones from tracks like “Knights of Cydonia” and “Hoodoo”, and definitely taking a note from their most progressive inspired track, “Citizen Erased”. This sprawling beast may be the best thing Muse has made in a long time, with an impressive buildup leading to an incredibly satisfying riff backed by the sound of voices emulating a choir of sorts. Finally, the song leads into a piano driven ballad up until the end, and comes to a satisfying close. Here, the album could’ve just ended, but the slightly underwhelming yet interesting “Drones” tries to embody a sermon of sorts, with overlapping vocals finally closing out the album with a big “amen”.
While there are some great tracks, this album definitely suffers from weak spots and jarring segues from tone. “Dead Inside” while an interesting album opener, using the metaphor of a failed relationship to resemble the protagonist’s hopelessness, tries to take another note from the Queen tribute sections from The 2nd Law, though with some improvement. The backing vocals are excellent and Bellamy’s voice is less Freddie and more of himself this time around, which leads to a stronger track in general. The intermissions, “[Drill Sergeant]“ and “[JFK]” are just kind of in the way, though while I wish the former wasn’t in at all due to the cringe worthy Full Metal Jacket impression. At least the latter segues excellently into “Defector”, which is a beneficial quality to contrast the obvious political affiliation. “Psycho” was probably the biggest disappointment since it was based off of a riff famous for being played alongside “Stockholm Syndrome” during their live shows, and just ended up being far too repetitive without variation, dulling the impact of the instrumentals entirely. Where “The Handler” and “Defector” both dabble in the dark tones from different perspectives, the latter is far too quick to change to a more elated upbeat rally with “Revolt” which starts with a fake-out which makes the song sound like it’s about to hit more ripping guitars but instead deals with synthesizers befitting a crowd waving a bunch of lighters to the sound of Bellamy crying out, “you’ve got the strength, you’ve got the soul, you’ve felt the pain, you’ve felt the love”. The same goes for “Aftermath” which is just kind of an odd track in general, although it echoes the same orchestral soft-spoken tone that later tracks in The Resistance had, but with a bit more flair.
If it wasn’t obvious, the weakest part about this album is the concept itself, but more importantly, the lyrics. I’d go as far to say this is Muse’s worst album lyrically, even worse than some of the cheesiest fodder that was written on The 2nd Law like “Madness”. The lyrics are too blunt for a concept album that’s supposed to be SHOWING, not TELLING. Matt uses the word “drones” far more than I think he should, trying to push the obvious drone metaphor so far down the listener’s throat it almost makes it all the way out the other side. Usually I’m lenient with a concept album depending on context and circumstance, but this is unacceptable. If the Drill Sergeant rambling and John F. Kennedy’s speech weren’t enough to support the blatant political backdrop, let’s take a line from “Reapers” which is an excellent song instrumentally, but drops a refrain like this: “You rule with lies and deceit / And the world is on your side / You've got the CIA babe / And all you've done is brutalize“. It’s hard to believe Matt read this more than once because reading it once was enough for me. Not to mention the chant that follows, “Killed by drones!”, echoing forever into blunt force trying to make one hundred percent sure that I know drones are NOT A GOOD THING. Namedropping the CIA is another good sign too because I know if I wanted to write anything with a hint of political focus to it I just need to name drop a couple of these: CIA, DEA, FBI, NSA, and I’ll be good. It’s a shortcut, and a very poor one at that. I even defended “Psycho” for having a line like “your ass belongs to me now” because it’s supposed to be from the drill sergeant’s perspective, but then there’s this: “I'll turn you into a super drone / And you will kill on my command“. Super drone? That sounds like when you’re a little kid and you want to make something sound greater than it really is. It’s not a drone, it’s a SUPER drone, and then the ULTRA drone is coming up next! Come on, you can make it sound more menacing than that. This doesn’t make me feel the “dark forces”, it just makes me have to stifle a laugh. That’s not right, Matt.
If you think I’m being too hard with the political aspects, then allow me to just point out some lyrical choices that are just plain bad. Where “Dead Inside” has a very obvious and easy to understand metaphorical approach, the lyrics are alright enough up until this last line: “On the outside I'm the greatest guy / Now I'm dead inside!” Excuse me for this, but this sounds a little too much like the internet white knight who is justifying why he can’t get a girl because they only like “bad boys”, and not enough like the hopeless, suffering, empty protagonist who has no direction in life. I mean, “Dead Inside” is a pretty hefty declaration to begin with. I’ve felt empty like that, but I certainly wasn’t making remarks that just sounded like I was being melodramatic. “Mercy” does the exact same things too, though lyrically the song is not strong at all, but when I’m supposed to be intimidated and horrified by “killing machines” and manipulative people, I can’t help but stifle another chuckle at a lyric that sounds more like a little kid complaining about the bully that stole their lunch money than a plea for help from oppression. “Show me mercy / From the gutless and mean“. Gutless and mean? That’s the best you can do for these “psychopaths who enable psychopathic behavior with no recourse”, Matt? It’s hard for me to feel the dark energy and apathy when there’s just too many lines that sound more like a Saturday morning cartoon villain than a realistic power-hungry tyrant. It sounds more like minor complaints than true suffering. I can’t identify with this grief-ridden protagonist or what they stand for because I’m not sold on their plight. Filling in the blanks and going, “oh right, manned drones killing people isn’t good and we should stop that” is not something I’m going to do for the sake of this album’s concept. When it comes to political albums that still tell a good story, American Idiot is the crown jewel, and the album’s name is the most blunt thing about it. Where subtlety is needed most conceptually and lyrically, Matt Bellamy does not deliver, and it’s a huge detriment the album. I feel like I should just not listen to what he’s saying at all and just enjoy the tone of his voice, for better or for worse. Matt Bellamy is a good lyricist, but this is an unfortunate turn for his lyricism.
That being said, where does Drones live in the Muse legacy? I’d say about in the middle. It’s on par with Black Holes and Revelations and when they said they were going back to basics, for the most part, they were telling the truth. I don’t think they could hold back from being a bit indulgent, but there are still some great tracks on here that I’d place as high as some off of Absolution and Origin of Symmetry (the latter being my favorite Muse album). Where there are weak spots, especially with the lyrics, Drones ends up being more of a surprise than a letdown, and in the end, I’d say it’s definitely worth a listen. Even when they decided to play around with ideas they began on The Resistance and The 2nd Law, they did them with a bit more grace and experience so that it didn’t seem like a repeat of where they went wrong originally. Stick around for the instrumentals and Bellamy’s strong vocal performance, and you’ve got yourself a pretty decent Muse album. I can only hope they choose to improve on the weakest aspects of this album and progress in a different direction for the better, but as time has proven, there’s no telling where they’ll decide to go next.
THE VERDICT: 7.3 out of 10
KEY TRACKS: "REAPERS", "THE HANDLER", "DEFECTOR", "THE GLOBALIST"
WEAKEST LINKS: "PSYCHO", "REVOLT", "DRONES"
ATTRIBUTES: BANKSY ALBUM ART, BLUNT FORCE LYRICS
GENRE BLANKET: ALT ROCK, PROG ROCK, SYNTH ROCK
MUSE - DRONES, 2015 © Helium 3, WMG
This is my personal opinion and I in no way am promulgating this as fact. If you like or hate the album, let me know! This is the first review I’ve done in a long time and I hope it was a decent read if anything. I hope to do more of these in the future. Thanks!
It was when Muse decided to delve into the magic of technology that they started experimenting in a whole new way, but with mixed results. Where Black Holes and Revelations was a space rock trip that liked to dabble in soft rock undertones and the occasional progressive flair (”Knights of Cydonia” comes to mind), The Resistance was incredibly heavy handed and incredibly melodramatic, with the politically charged anthem “Uprising” segueing oddly into the pop-inspired “Resistance” and “Undisclosed Desires”, and then back into another anthem with “United States of Eurasia”, and then onwards into synthesizer heavy territory and a jarring transition into classical inspired pieces like “I Belong To You” and the entirety of the “Exogenesis” trilogy. While the former is still seen with much fondness, The Resistance tends to be a mixed bag for most.
While experimentation and change keeps a band’s sound interesting, it’s hard to defend the half Queen tribute, half dubstep tribute mess that was The 2nd Law. While I personally think tracks like “Supremacy”, “Animals”, “Explorers”, and “Liquid State” were gems in otherwise murky waters, the rest of the album sounded like a science experiment gone wrong that ended in a explosion not unlike one in a cartoon. “Panic Station” and “Big Freeze” sounded like Queen and U2 birthed some kind of abomination that was like Freddie Mercury tried to perform a U2 anthem and it just comes out all wrong. “Survival” is cheesy, but decent enough. “Follow Me”, and both of the “The 2nd Law” tracks were Matt’s big electronic dubstep fusion experiment that at times was really interesting and at others was really dismal. This was easily Muse’s worst effort, and while it was admirable that they were trying to delve into somewhat of an ambitious territory, it just didn’t seem right for them to follow a trend that they unsuccessfully tried to embody.
So, when Matt Bellamy promised a comeback to rock n’ roll instrumentals without all the experimental electronic layering, there was reason to be excited. While I don’t like the idea of believing a band should try to replicate their earlier works, Muse needed to get back to their strengths while still approaching an interesting direction musically. To achieve this, they decided to write a concept album. At the time, all people knew was that it had to do with the empathy gap and war. Muse was not foreign to existential concepts, but I suppose it’s worth pointing out that after Absolution, Matt Bellamy’s lyricism tended to drift into the world of political focus, especially with The Resistance. If “Uprising” wasn’t obvious enough with Matt Bellamy chanting “we will be victorious” to the sound of a marching crowd, then I don’t know what to tell you. If the question was, “how can Muse get any more political than this?”, then the answer would be by making a concept album with an incredibly heavy political message. As such, Drones was born, 53 minutes in length.
While Drones deals with interesting ideas, such as the emotional gap between real life tragedy and people behind the barrier of technology, and the sparks that initiate conflict such as revolution and war, there couldn’t be a more heavy handed way of trying to express these ideas than to delve into the world of politics. The story of the album is about an unnamed individual who feels emptiness towards their surroundings, and as such, are easily coaxed into becoming a puppet for “dark forces” (as Bellamy puts it) to commit horrendous acts without consequence. Most of these acts, as you could imagine, are killing people, but the “drones” Bellamy talks about in this story are not vehicles but conditioned psychopaths that don’t feel the repercussions of the act. However, the protagonist finds that they can’t allow themselves to continue being controlled as a “human drone”, so they defect and begin a revolt to take down these “dark oppressors” and to overcome their effects on the world around them. While this is a decent concept at best, the obvious political message that isn’t shrouded with even a hint of subtlety spoils the impact.
Instrumentally, Drones is Muse at their best since even Absolution. While there are tracks that hint back to the softer side of Black Holes and Revelations such as “Mercy” and “Aftermath” which are more synth driven and upbeat, there are some real classic guitar driven Muse material that really takes on identities of their own. “Reapers” is a 6 minute guitar driven power ballad about the consequences of the protagonist’s actions, with instrumentals that hit harder than they have in a long time, emulating what made songs like “Stockholm Syndrome” so great and twisting that to make something even more fresh. “The Handler” utilize dark and brooding guitar and bass parts along with heavy drumming to propel Bellamy’s crooning acceptance towards the fate of becoming a human drone. Even after the breaking point in the album, Muse brings an anthem that puts “Uprising” to great shame with “Defector”, which maintains an upbeat tone with a hint of bittersweet from the rough instrumentals and the same kind of hard-hitting drumming that would support a march against oppression. The backup vocals have a strong presence in these tracks along with most of the album, and definitely shine in both this track and the album opener, “Dead Inside”. The biggest surprise to me was the staggering 10 minute climax, “The Globalist”, which starts out with the kind of whistling you’d hear in a spaghetti western, calling back to tones from tracks like “Knights of Cydonia” and “Hoodoo”, and definitely taking a note from their most progressive inspired track, “Citizen Erased”. This sprawling beast may be the best thing Muse has made in a long time, with an impressive buildup leading to an incredibly satisfying riff backed by the sound of voices emulating a choir of sorts. Finally, the song leads into a piano driven ballad up until the end, and comes to a satisfying close. Here, the album could’ve just ended, but the slightly underwhelming yet interesting “Drones” tries to embody a sermon of sorts, with overlapping vocals finally closing out the album with a big “amen”.
While there are some great tracks, this album definitely suffers from weak spots and jarring segues from tone. “Dead Inside” while an interesting album opener, using the metaphor of a failed relationship to resemble the protagonist’s hopelessness, tries to take another note from the Queen tribute sections from The 2nd Law, though with some improvement. The backing vocals are excellent and Bellamy’s voice is less Freddie and more of himself this time around, which leads to a stronger track in general. The intermissions, “[Drill Sergeant]“ and “[JFK]” are just kind of in the way, though while I wish the former wasn’t in at all due to the cringe worthy Full Metal Jacket impression. At least the latter segues excellently into “Defector”, which is a beneficial quality to contrast the obvious political affiliation. “Psycho” was probably the biggest disappointment since it was based off of a riff famous for being played alongside “Stockholm Syndrome” during their live shows, and just ended up being far too repetitive without variation, dulling the impact of the instrumentals entirely. Where “The Handler” and “Defector” both dabble in the dark tones from different perspectives, the latter is far too quick to change to a more elated upbeat rally with “Revolt” which starts with a fake-out which makes the song sound like it’s about to hit more ripping guitars but instead deals with synthesizers befitting a crowd waving a bunch of lighters to the sound of Bellamy crying out, “you’ve got the strength, you’ve got the soul, you’ve felt the pain, you’ve felt the love”. The same goes for “Aftermath” which is just kind of an odd track in general, although it echoes the same orchestral soft-spoken tone that later tracks in The Resistance had, but with a bit more flair.
If it wasn’t obvious, the weakest part about this album is the concept itself, but more importantly, the lyrics. I’d go as far to say this is Muse’s worst album lyrically, even worse than some of the cheesiest fodder that was written on The 2nd Law like “Madness”. The lyrics are too blunt for a concept album that’s supposed to be SHOWING, not TELLING. Matt uses the word “drones” far more than I think he should, trying to push the obvious drone metaphor so far down the listener’s throat it almost makes it all the way out the other side. Usually I’m lenient with a concept album depending on context and circumstance, but this is unacceptable. If the Drill Sergeant rambling and John F. Kennedy’s speech weren’t enough to support the blatant political backdrop, let’s take a line from “Reapers” which is an excellent song instrumentally, but drops a refrain like this: “You rule with lies and deceit / And the world is on your side / You've got the CIA babe / And all you've done is brutalize“. It’s hard to believe Matt read this more than once because reading it once was enough for me. Not to mention the chant that follows, “Killed by drones!”, echoing forever into blunt force trying to make one hundred percent sure that I know drones are NOT A GOOD THING. Namedropping the CIA is another good sign too because I know if I wanted to write anything with a hint of political focus to it I just need to name drop a couple of these: CIA, DEA, FBI, NSA, and I’ll be good. It’s a shortcut, and a very poor one at that. I even defended “Psycho” for having a line like “your ass belongs to me now” because it’s supposed to be from the drill sergeant’s perspective, but then there’s this: “I'll turn you into a super drone / And you will kill on my command“. Super drone? That sounds like when you’re a little kid and you want to make something sound greater than it really is. It’s not a drone, it’s a SUPER drone, and then the ULTRA drone is coming up next! Come on, you can make it sound more menacing than that. This doesn’t make me feel the “dark forces”, it just makes me have to stifle a laugh. That’s not right, Matt.
If you think I’m being too hard with the political aspects, then allow me to just point out some lyrical choices that are just plain bad. Where “Dead Inside” has a very obvious and easy to understand metaphorical approach, the lyrics are alright enough up until this last line: “On the outside I'm the greatest guy / Now I'm dead inside!” Excuse me for this, but this sounds a little too much like the internet white knight who is justifying why he can’t get a girl because they only like “bad boys”, and not enough like the hopeless, suffering, empty protagonist who has no direction in life. I mean, “Dead Inside” is a pretty hefty declaration to begin with. I’ve felt empty like that, but I certainly wasn’t making remarks that just sounded like I was being melodramatic. “Mercy” does the exact same things too, though lyrically the song is not strong at all, but when I’m supposed to be intimidated and horrified by “killing machines” and manipulative people, I can’t help but stifle another chuckle at a lyric that sounds more like a little kid complaining about the bully that stole their lunch money than a plea for help from oppression. “Show me mercy / From the gutless and mean“. Gutless and mean? That’s the best you can do for these “psychopaths who enable psychopathic behavior with no recourse”, Matt? It’s hard for me to feel the dark energy and apathy when there’s just too many lines that sound more like a Saturday morning cartoon villain than a realistic power-hungry tyrant. It sounds more like minor complaints than true suffering. I can’t identify with this grief-ridden protagonist or what they stand for because I’m not sold on their plight. Filling in the blanks and going, “oh right, manned drones killing people isn’t good and we should stop that” is not something I’m going to do for the sake of this album’s concept. When it comes to political albums that still tell a good story, American Idiot is the crown jewel, and the album’s name is the most blunt thing about it. Where subtlety is needed most conceptually and lyrically, Matt Bellamy does not deliver, and it’s a huge detriment the album. I feel like I should just not listen to what he’s saying at all and just enjoy the tone of his voice, for better or for worse. Matt Bellamy is a good lyricist, but this is an unfortunate turn for his lyricism.
That being said, where does Drones live in the Muse legacy? I’d say about in the middle. It’s on par with Black Holes and Revelations and when they said they were going back to basics, for the most part, they were telling the truth. I don’t think they could hold back from being a bit indulgent, but there are still some great tracks on here that I’d place as high as some off of Absolution and Origin of Symmetry (the latter being my favorite Muse album). Where there are weak spots, especially with the lyrics, Drones ends up being more of a surprise than a letdown, and in the end, I’d say it’s definitely worth a listen. Even when they decided to play around with ideas they began on The Resistance and The 2nd Law, they did them with a bit more grace and experience so that it didn’t seem like a repeat of where they went wrong originally. Stick around for the instrumentals and Bellamy’s strong vocal performance, and you’ve got yourself a pretty decent Muse album. I can only hope they choose to improve on the weakest aspects of this album and progress in a different direction for the better, but as time has proven, there’s no telling where they’ll decide to go next.
THE VERDICT: 7.3 out of 10
KEY TRACKS: "REAPERS", "THE HANDLER", "DEFECTOR", "THE GLOBALIST"
WEAKEST LINKS: "PSYCHO", "REVOLT", "DRONES"
ATTRIBUTES: BANKSY ALBUM ART, BLUNT FORCE LYRICS
GENRE BLANKET: ALT ROCK, PROG ROCK, SYNTH ROCK
MUSE - DRONES, 2015 © Helium 3, WMG
This is my personal opinion and I in no way am promulgating this as fact. If you like or hate the album, let me know! This is the first review I’ve done in a long time and I hope it was a decent read if anything. I hope to do more of these in the future. Thanks!