MUSE- Drones (June 8th) and Tour

[chevelle]

You know, I think Muse are just totally out of ideas at this point. They tried pushing their sound by tacking on different influences and styles from BHaR to The 2nd Law, with highly mixed results, and now that they're going back to their 'rock' sound, it truly shows that they're just treading water. There's nothing new or interesting in these new songs that they haven't done before, and they just feel really phoned in. I kinda wish they'd just break up at this point, honestly, which is a shame since they used to be one of my favorite bands at one time.

[Strange Broue]

You know, I think Muse are just totally out of ideas at this point. They tried pushing their sound by tacking on different influences and styles from BHaR to The 2nd Law, with highly mixed results, and now that they're going back to their 'rock' sound, it truly shows that they're just treading water. There's nothing new or interesting in these new songs that they haven't done before, and they just feel really phoned in. I kinda wish they'd just break up at this point, honestly, which is a shame since they used to be one of my favorite bands at one time.

So when a mostly rock band making a mostly rock album, you wish that they should breaking up?

That makes zero sense. They still have the experimental elements... yeah, this album will not revolutionaise rock music, but c'mon...

Reaper was decent and some great guitar work on there. Mercy on the other hand is too pop (for my taste)

Seems like this album will have some great songs, then have some real duds

But there's no reasons to wish a break up....

Newsflash: there's nothing new or interesting in rock music that haven't done before

[Zeppelin]

Mercy was pretty awful. Reapers is better, but it still feels like there's something missing.

[Strange Broue]

Mercy was pretty awful. Reapers is better, but it still feels like there's something missing.

The vocals and lyrics were weak and generic (which is a bad surprise from Bellamy)

[D..]

I'm hyped to be honest. Sure the first 4 released songs from Drones are mediocre coming from them... Mercy has got to be the worst song they've ever released, I mean it's even worse than Starlight and Undisclosed Desires combined (which were already fucking terrible). But the mainstream audience will love it so it's probably good they wrote this crap, it will bring more cash to the band and all the people working for them. I try to see it in an optimistic way, lots of people are hired by Muse and those guys are awesome beings, they always hire the same crew, so everyone will have food for their families.

Psycho is too simple and easy. Reapers... it's okay, Matt has improved a lot on guitar, but it's a mediocre song sadly, even if technically impressive for Muse's standards, the chorus is horrendous, this kind of voice worked on Micro Cuts 14 years ago, but it's just annoying here.

But let's forget all this crap. Drones has ONE thing going on for itself: The Globalist. From the clips I've heard, this one song will seal the deal for me. This will be for sure the best song of the album, and maybe song of the year for me. If they play this live, I will buy a ticket again. Haven't bought one in 5 years. From what I've seen, though they threw some surprises in the setlists at the beginning of the tour, they went backwards and are offering shitty setlists once again. But all can be forgiven if they dare play The Globalist at each gig. If they do, they'll get my money, and so will the rest of their crew. Haven't even heard this song in full but it's like Muse's The General. It will kick asses and take names.

Also curious about The Handler. Defector might be good.

Clearly the first 4 songs may not represent the real quality of this album, like for all Muse albums. For some reason, they mostly release the shitty songs as singles.

And you know, while driving on my way home tonight, I was listening to the radio and they aired some song by Dead Daisies, Mexico I think it was called... there are some quality people in that band... but man what a boring piece of crap. Hard rock generic. Plain shit. I bet their whole album sound like this.

At least, with Muse, every song is different. They rip off everything, but at least, it's a bit surprising, you feel like those guys did some work and sound research. This is why Muse is still a better band than 90% of what's coming out of the industry. They are not this predictable. I swear Dead Daisies is already a dead band, nobody wants this shit anymore. Sure Muse have known more creative days, but they're still far more enjoyable than most rock bands.

[bacardimayne]

This album is lyrical cringe personified, so far. Musically it's not much better.

[ZoSoRose]

Reapers was awesome imo. Dead Inside I like but its essentially a pop song. Mercy is lame. Psycho sucks.

And their lyrics are always terrible for the most part.

I'm still excited to hear the album, but my hype died down. Its clear they are past their prime in the studio. I still hope The Globalist is a great track

I'm hyped to be honest. Sure the first 4 released songs from Drones are mediocre coming from them... Mercy has got to be the worst song they've ever released, I mean it's even worse than Starlight and Undisclosed Desires combined (which were already fucking terrible). But the mainstream audience will love it so it's probably good they wrote this crap, it will bring more cash to the band and all the people working for them. I try to see it in an optimistic way, lots of people are hired by Muse and those guys are awesome beings, they always hire the same crew, so everyone will have food for their families.

Psycho is too simple and easy. Reapers... it's okay, Matt has improved a lot on guitar, but it's a mediocre song sadly, even if technically impressive for Muse's standards, the chorus is horrendous, this kind of voice worked on Micro Cuts 14 years ago, but it's just annoying here.

But let's forget all this crap. Drones has ONE thing going on for itself: The Globalist. From the clips I've heard, this one song will seal the deal for me. This will be for sure the best song of the album, and maybe song of the year for me. If they play this live, I will buy a ticket again. Haven't bought one in 5 years. From what I've seen, though they threw some surprises in the setlists at the beginning of the tour, they went backwards and are offering shitty setlists once again. But all can be forgiven if they dare play The Globalist at each gig. If they do, they'll get my money, and so will the rest of their crew. Haven't even heard this song in full but it's like Muse's The General. It will kick asses and take names.

Also curious about The Handler. Defector might be good.

Clearly the first 4 songs may not represent the real quality of this album, like for all Muse albums. For some reason, they mostly release the shitty songs as singles.

And you know, while driving on my way home tonight, I was listening to the radio and they aired some song by Dead Daisies, Mexico I think it was called... there are some quality people in that band... but man what a boring piece of crap. Hard rock generic. Plain shit. I bet their whole album sound like this.

At least, with Muse, every song is different. They rip off everything, but at least, it's a bit surprising, you feel like those guys did some work and sound research. This is why Muse is still a better band than 90% of what's coming out of the industry. They are not this predictable. I swear Dead Daisies is already a dead band, nobody wants this shit anymore. Sure Muse have known more creative days, but they're still far more enjoyable than most rock bands.

Comparing The Dead Daisies and Muse is random as fuck

EDIT- And this might sound blasphemis, but does anyone else think Muse would have been better overall with another singer? Matt writes good music, is ambitious, and is a unique guitar player but I feel like his style of singing gets tedious on every song. It has its place, but they might have benefited by using it in unison with someone else. Just a thought

Edited June 1, 2015 by ZoSoRose

[D..]

Definitely not ZoSo, Matt has a unique voice and a real signature to it. He is one of the best vocalists around, just like Jeff Buckley in the 90's. Without his voice, Muse wouldn't be Muse. His singing isn't "perfect", but he gives it all, he brings his soul in the songs, just like Brian Molko with Placebo. It's very rare to hear that type of voice and style of singing.

As for my comparison, it's really relevant to the state of the rock industry these days. All those 40/50 years old musicians try too hard to resurrect something that's been dead for the past 20 years. I find it harder and harder to enjoy something like what the Dead Daisies have to offer. It's been done before, again and again, it's just generic hard rock which is boring as fuck now. It's too old. Axl was definitely right to choose another direction for Chinese Democracy, at least that was a bit different and surprising.

[chevelle]

You know, I think Muse are just totally out of ideas at this point. They tried pushing their sound by tacking on different influences and styles from BHaR to The 2nd Law, with highly mixed results, and now that they're going back to their 'rock' sound, it truly shows that they're just treading water. There's nothing new or interesting in these new songs that they haven't done before, and they just feel really phoned in. I kinda wish they'd just break up at this point, honestly, which is a shame since they used to be one of my favorite bands at one time.

So when a mostly rock band making a mostly rock album, you wish that they should breaking up?

That makes zero sense. They still have the experimental elements... yeah, this album will not revolutionaise rock music, but c'mon...

Reaper was decent and some great guitar work on there. Mercy on the other hand is too pop (for my taste)

Seems like this album will have some great songs, then have some real duds

But there's no reasons to wish a break up....

Newsflash: there's nothing new or interesting in rock music that haven't done before

I'm always super skeptical of a band when they suddenly decide to "go back to their roots" after a long period of experimenting. To me it shows that they see their star fading and want to grab onto the fanbase they used to have, so they force out something that sounds kinda-sorta similar to what they used to do, but not nearly as inspired. And it's really showing on this album based on the songs they've released, from the retreading of lyrical ideas Matt has done to death already, dredging up 10 year old riffs they played live, it all feels like a caricature of what Muse used to be. Why do we need current Muse trying to act like twelve years ago Muse, instead of at least pushing themselves further?

[ZoSoRose]

Ok, this is pretty good. I'm feeling better about the album. Psycho and Mercy are the only real misfires so far

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iqRcaNY9m4

And to clarify, I think Matt's voice is really good and part of what makes Muse Muse. I regretted what I said when I hit "post". I just think another vocal style and writer to push him here and there wouldn't hurt the band.

[Huttz]

Ok, this is pretty good. I'm feeling better about the album. Psycho and Mercy are the only real misfires so far

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iqRcaNY9m4

And to clarify, I think Matt's voice is really good and part of what makes Muse Muse. I regretted what I said when I hit "post". I just think another vocal style and writer to push him here and there wouldn't hurt the band.

I'm liking this one... the last two - Reapers and The Handler have me interested again.

[Strange Broue]

Wow this is really great, best song so far

and some people tell that going back to their rock sound is a bad thing and they should be disbanded...

looool

The Resistance doesn't contain a track as good as like this one

[Strange Broue]

You know, I think Muse are just totally out of ideas at this point. They tried pushing their sound by tacking on different influences and styles from BHaR to The 2nd Law, with highly mixed results, and now that they're going back to their 'rock' sound, it truly shows that they're just treading water. There's nothing new or interesting in these new songs that they haven't done before, and they just feel really phoned in. I kinda wish they'd just break up at this point, honestly, which is a shame since they used to be one of my favorite bands at one time.

So when a mostly rock band making a mostly rock album, you wish that they should breaking up?

That makes zero sense. They still have the experimental elements... yeah, this album will not revolutionaise rock music, but c'mon...

Reaper was decent and some great guitar work on there. Mercy on the other hand is too pop (for my taste)

Seems like this album will have some great songs, then have some real duds

But there's no reasons to wish a break up....

Newsflash: there's nothing new or interesting in rock music that haven't done before

I'm always super skeptical of a band when they suddenly decide to "go back to their roots" after a long period of experimenting. To me it shows that they see their star fading and want to grab onto the fanbase they used to have, so they force out something that sounds kinda-sorta similar to what they used to do, but not nearly as inspired. And it's really showing on this album based on the songs they've released, from the retreading of lyrical ideas Matt has done to death already, dredging up 10 year old riffs they played live, it all feels like a caricature of what Muse used to be. Why do we need current Muse trying to act like twelve years ago Muse, instead of at least pushing themselves further?

Yeah, because "pushing themselves further" is always a good thing, no?

Oh please... many bands went to a total downfall because the constant experimenting

Maybe the general fanbase wants some "12 year ago Muse" after THREE experimental records...

This constant bickering about "pushing themselves" are mostly the main reason bands break up because of musical differencies (see GNR)

and they basically try anything: classical music, electronic music and they were always so eclectic from day one, so i don't see what they could do to push themselves further really...

Edited June 1, 2015 by Strange Broue

[chevelle]

You know, I think Muse are just totally out of ideas at this point. They tried pushing their sound by tacking on different influences and styles from BHaR to The 2nd Law, with highly mixed results, and now that they're going back to their 'rock' sound, it truly shows that they're just treading water. There's nothing new or interesting in these new songs that they haven't done before, and they just feel really phoned in. I kinda wish they'd just break up at this point, honestly, which is a shame since they used to be one of my favorite bands at one time.

So when a mostly rock band making a mostly rock album, you wish that they should breaking up?

That makes zero sense. They still have the experimental elements... yeah, this album will not revolutionaise rock music, but c'mon...

Reaper was decent and some great guitar work on there. Mercy on the other hand is too pop (for my taste)

Seems like this album will have some great songs, then have some real duds

But there's no reasons to wish a break up....

Newsflash: there's nothing new or interesting in rock music that haven't done before

I'm always super skeptical of a band when they suddenly decide to "go back to their roots" after a long period of experimenting. To me it shows that they see their star fading and want to grab onto the fanbase they used to have, so they force out something that sounds kinda-sorta similar to what they used to do, but not nearly as inspired. And it's really showing on this album based on the songs they've released, from the retreading of lyrical ideas Matt has done to death already, dredging up 10 year old riffs they played live, it all feels like a caricature of what Muse used to be. Why do we need current Muse trying to act like twelve years ago Muse, instead of at least pushing themselves further?

Yeah, because "pushing themselves further" is always a good thing, no?

Oh please... many bands went to a total downfall because the constant experimenting

Maybe the general fanbase wants some "12 year ago Muse" after THREE experimental records...

This constant bickering about "pushing themselves" are mostly the main reason bands break up because of musical differencies (see GNR)

and they basically try anything: classical music, electronic music and they were always so eclectic from day one, so i don't see what they could do to push themselves further really...

And once again, that's why I mistrust "back to basics" albums. When a band starts obviously trying to please the fanbase, it's a very hollow thing to me. Muse have always changed and grown with each record, now suddenly they're flipping the script and throwing back. Matt seems like an intelligent guy that listens to a lot of music and reads a lot of books, I'd be hard pressed to believe there wouldn't be more things he wants to try and talk about versus throwing back to drop tuned riffs and more cliched conspiracy theory lyrics.

[ChineseDemocracy2004]

I pre-ordered my copy of the album yesterday and I'm looking forward to it.

At the moment I like Dead Inside the least but then again there were a couple of songs from The 2nd Law that took a while for me to get in to.

The start of Reapers reminds me of Hot For Teacher.

[ZoSoRose]

Got the album. From the first listen-

Dead Inside- I like this one. Its poppy and kinda dumb but it has really good melodies, a solo, and a cool outro. Its fine.

[Drill Sargent]/Psycho- Disappointment. Cool guitar and the music and melodies are alright, if not simple. Its a shittier Uprising musically, and the lyrics are just terrible. Matt's lyrics have been deteriorating more and more since the Resistance. And unfortunatly, the whole "us vs them, war sucks" edgy teenager theme is in full force on this album.

Mercy- Another pretty bad song. Its just super boring. Musically it goes nowhere. On paper, it isn't offensive, but its so boring I don't care about it. I'll never go out of my way to listen to this song.

Reapers- Might be my favorite song on the album. Its good, but not really unique. You'll find Matt copying things on this album. Psycho ripped off Uprising and funny enough, this one rips off Eddie's tapping in "Hot for Teacher" a bit. Whatever, the guitar's great and the song is cool.

The Handler- This might be my second favorite song on the album. A good, heavy rocker. Good riffs, lyrics don't seem offensively stupid, and it sounds good. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but its cool.

[JFK]/Defector- JFK is a speech by, you guessed it, JFK. So edgy and deep, right? Defector starts promising with some metalish guitar. The song is ok, I guess. Lyrics are stupid. He tries to channel Queen again with this one. You get the Queen-esque harmonies. The song never goes anywhere (like many of these songs). Not bad/not great

Revolt- This is a full on pop song. It might be the poppiest song Muse has done. Cheesy, stereotypical "we can do it!" but that darn opressive government is holding us down! lyrics. The pre chorus and chorus is as stereotypical pop you can get with Queen harmonies. Change the lyrics and instruments and this would be a Kelly Clarkston song. That being said, its catchy I guess.

Aftermath- This is One by U2. Well, its close and not as good. I know that is a common chord progression, but Matt's lead guitar sounds just like the Edge's at times. I don't even want to comment on the lyrics. I like the guitar I guess, though.

The Globalist- Man, on first listen I have some opinions on this one. This is the song Muse fans have been drooling over. Matt described it as "Citizen Erased 2.0". Combine that and the 10 minute run time, and you can see why everyone's freaking out. The song started great. I love spaghetti westerns (Knights of Cydonia is one of my favorite Muse songs). The intro is a straight up Ennio Morricone tribute (he did stuff like The Ecstasy of Gold). Very good use of guitar and Matt's singing is good. Then it goes into a really heavy riff, cool! Sounds good. That goes on for a while, the whole band kicks in and there's a cool solo. The first 6 minutes and 40 seconds of this song are the best on the record. Then the piano and orchestra comes in and instead of an epic send off, Matt goes back into cringe educing lyrics. The music isn't bad, here, just disappointing. Damn.

Drones- A 3 minute acapella church Matt song. What the fuck? Ok? That's it.

Impressions- It might seem like I hate the record, but I don't think I do. I think, overall, I enjoy it more than The Second Law. Supremacy and Animals were stellar songs on that, but half of that album was meh to terrible. Less on this album sticks out as terrible, musically based on my first listen. What is almost all terrible is the lyrics. In 9th grade, I would have thought they were the deepest thing ever. This trend really started in Resistance, where Matt latched onto love in a dis-utopian, "us vs them" theme thing. You know what album had a cool Orwellian theme? Animals, but Matt is far from a Roger Waters. Unfortunately, he isn't a very good lyricist and everything comes off as a total cheese fest. Its only been getting worse since then and it is in full force on "Drones". He said the word "drone" in like every song. I get that this is a concept album, and its supposed to have some story but it was really hard to focus on that when the lyrics are so terrible.That being said, none of the music is offensively bad or anything, but there are a few real standout moments.

Muse was best when they just focused on cool, space rock music. They're old stuff was an awesome blend of synthesizers, heavy guitars and bass, and drums. They had ambitious songs and some fun, catchy pop-rock tunes (that still sounded like them). Sadly, Matt thinks he is some visionary with an important and deep message and he doesn't. He is a great guitar player and singer that can write some great songs, but struggles with direction. Dominic and Chris are great musicians, but that's about it. Muse could have used someone with more leadership to go along with Matt. Resistance had some great material (about half of it), but that was the beginning of their downward creative trend. 2nd Law was a mess imo, and this isn't exactly a step in the right direction.

So far I'd rate this a 5 or 6 out of 10.

Best Songs- Dead Inside, Reapers, The Handler, 2/3rds of The Globalist

Worst Songs- Psycho, Mercy, Aftermath, Revolt. Drones, 1/3rd of The Globalist

Meh Songs- Defector

Edited June 3, 2015 by ZoSoRose

[RandallFlagg]

I'm listening to it now with some vodka and cokes I'll narrate my thoughts later probably, I have loved at least 80% of every Muse record so my hopes are high.

[Mansin Humanity]

I'm gonna listen to it tomorrow, but am I the only one (and Randall, maybe, since his post is what prompted this) who thinks T2L is a damn solid album? I can fuck with every song besides Save Me and Big Freeze. Yes, even Madness/Explorers/Unsustainable/insert song from that record you don't like.

[RandallFlagg]

I'm gonna listen to it tomorrow, but am I the only one (and Randall, maybe, since his post is what prompted this) who thinks T2L is a damn solid album? I can fuck with every song besides Save Me and Big Freeze. Yes, even Madness/Explorers/Unsustainable/insert song from that record you don't like.

Damn I love that record, even Big Freeze is great fun, tbh I don't really dig Save Me but I appreciate Chris having some time to shine, Liquid State is a deadly track eventually. There's just so much variation and new angles unfurling all over the place, sure, too much experimentation/dipping into different areas can ruin the cohesion and focus of a record but I feel as if they'd earned that right at that point, it;s Muse, don't take it too seriously but don't let playing dress up get a pass, there was a great balance in the album for me.

As for the new record, it's 'good' is my first impression, a lot more of a 'glued' approach, I don't like it as much as 2nd Law and it's nothing on the older stuff but it's respectable enough with a few stands outs, some 'meh' I felt at first impression. Not bad but not too impressive. I like Zoso's in depth review up there. The JFK speech being a single track pissed me off, I've known that quote for a long time and Bellamy is a sharp guy, so do something better with it for god's sake, always been a pet peeve of mind with him, he doesn't really expound on the topics he half-covers.

[Zeppelin]

The Globalist is so awesome until it gets to that "epic" conclusion. Like ZoSo said, it's decent musically, but it really kills the momentum of the song. Blah.

[ZoSoRose]

The people on the Muse subreddit are hilarious. You have people saying the album sucks and then everyone else freaking out and defending/rationalizing it.

Then you have the die hard idiots that claim its some masterpiece and typing like excited teenagers. So obnoxious.

I guess I was like that as a teen with ChiDem, though

EDIT- Lookin' forward to Bacardi trashing this

Edited June 3, 2015 by ZoSoRose

[D..]

Mmmm... hard to judge an album like this, as always with Muse ever since Black Holes & Revelations. If you take the lyrics away, there's absolutely no "concept album" idea whatsoever (apart from the lazy ass transitions in the 2nd half).

They rip off so many bands it would be easy to catalogue Muse as uninspired... but surprisingly, when they rip something off, they just do it better than the original, which is fucking amazing.

As a whole, the album makes no fucking sense. That's what I was afraid of, and sadly it didn't live up to the hype at all, their "we have a concept album" talk is bullshit.

4 of the songs are garbage/mediocre: Mercy, Revolt, Psycho, Aftermath... What the fuck were they thinking... Sucks ass.

On the other hand, The Globalist... man... as an old fan who has listened to them from their start back in 1999, listened to all the b-sides, went to 12+ gigs... I can easily say, that it's hands down the best song they have ever released. Fucking amazing.

I had my gf listen to The globalist, and she didn't like the third part, with the piano. She isn't a musician but generally she has very good tastes, so I was surprised she didn't dig it. I told her "listen to this, it's the best song that's come out in the past years" and she said "meh...". Damn. Fucking chicks.

So yeah, the globalist. Fucking great. All parts are very different, it even fades into "Drones" (which is awesome, Matthew really impressed me on that one), and yet it makes sense. The lyrics are incredibly depressing, I wasn't expecting the guy to wipe out all of Humanity. Incredible.

As for the rest, The Handler and Reapers are easily among the best of the album, but The Handler could have been better... lacks something. Same for Reapers, the singing in the chorus is annoying as hell. But hopefully, there is TG, and the singing on their is heavenly.

I also liked Defector, very catchy, but it will get old pretty quickly.

Overall, nice album, not their best, not their worst (2nd Law), The Globalist deserved its own album. At least I will remember "Drones" for the best song they ever made and best rock song of the last 7 years.

[ZoSoRose]

but surprisingly, when they rip something off, they just do it better than the original, which is fucking amazing.

lol

I can easily say, that it's hands down the best song they have ever released. Fucking amazing.

lol

At least I will remember "Drones" for the best song they ever made and best rock song of the last 7 years.

lol

[D..]

lol Thank you for your real review. (lol)

[ZoSoRose]

Sorry, man. I'm glad you like the song. I can tell you are a big fan of the band, that's cool.

I just don't know how you can say they rip bands off and sound better. By that logic they'd do Queen, U2, and Van Halen better than those respective bands since those are the obvious rip offs on this record. I also don't know how you can call The Globalist their best song (or the best rock song in 7 years). I understand how hype works, and even I was psyched for that song. The first section is good, the second section is good (although not unlike a lot of their other work), and then the third section ruins it for me. I think the lyrics are just meh and the sections have zero flow between them. It sounds like 3 unfinished ideas as opposed to one song, in my opinion.

I'm just bummed, this album was a huge let down for me. Resistence was half great/half lame, T2L was half good/half terrible, and this is like a quarter "ok"/3 fourths bad imo. Its just disappointing since I know they are a very talented band.