#61: Muse - Drones#15 for 2015It's pretty clear that Muse are past their prime and are never going to come close to their earlier albums. But I'm of the mind that even at their best, they were never truly great. Absolution is pretty good, and Origin of Symmetry isn't far behind. And Black Holes is a decent album, but a mixed bag between good songs and kind of mediocre ones.
I think Drones more resembles Black Holes than any of their other albums, albeit without the experimentation that ran throughout most of the album. This is probably the least ambitious Muse album, honestly; The Resistance and The 2nd Law were both pompously overblown and even in their failures (especially with the latter, a truly awful album) they still seemed to serve a purpose. What purpose does Drones serve, though?
The worst this album has to offer is its two short interludes that are just samples. Drill Sergeant is laughable and Muse just outright shouldn't be invoking JFK at all, especially not with cheesy strings and annoying guitar chugging.
It's a shame that the attitude of Drill Sergeant bleeds through to the rest of the album, too; especially Psycho, which is just a colossal failure of a song only redeemed by a solid groove, but far from Muse's best. The lyrics in general feel overblown and preachy, but ultimately irrelevant.
Dead Inside and Mercy both feel like single bait songs, being pretty poppy and mostly inoffensive besides the wailing of "DEAD INSIDE" on the former, a silly "edgy" phrase that's hard to take seriously. The Handler and Defector are also easy to group into the same category, both being driven by bass grooves and both being pretty solid, but nothing that special. The former slightly has the edge on the latter, but not by much. Aftermath is a very pretty ballad that's also kind of cheesy, and while I don't find it especially strong it's still one of the better tracks here.
I guess I'm making it sound like I don't find any songs here that strong, which is untrue; Reapers is probably the best song they've done since Black Holes, the noodly tapping guitar works surprisingly well, the song has a ton of energy to it, and one heck of a groovy chorus riff. The slower groove of the outro is cool too, really no complaints about this. And Revolt is a song I feel like I should hate for how cheesy it is, but it's also quite a fun listen. The bright main chord progression is really strong, and the faster chorus is a great singalong moment. I'm aware this song definitely isn't the greatest but it brings a smile to my face every time. I also like, of all things, the a cappella outro track Drones. It's pretty haunting and doesn't outstay its welcome, it's definitely an interesting way to close the album.
And then we get The Globalist, the big "epic" of the album, and supposed sequel to Citizen Erased. That's kind of pissing in the face of the latter, honestly, since this track is a disaster. It's just a messy string of various ideas that are all fine enough on their own I guess but there's just no transition between anything and no part of the track really relates to any other part either.
The album overall is a pretty rocky ride though, some low points, some high points, and a lot of meh in-between. It's definitely a step up from their previous, but the high points aren't generally thaaaat good either. I doubt I'm going to be buying another Muse album in the future though, unless it gets wildly positive reviews or something. Just no interest left in this band, after a string of disappointments.
Favorite Tracks: Reapers, Revolt, Drones
Least Favorite Tracks: Psycho, The Globalist
5.25/10DTF Addendum: Yes, Origin of Symmetry is in my 2015 collection too, for the record. I finally got around to getting it after like, 8+ years
Honestly this is the first full album on the list that doesn't generally bore me, but it also makes me cringe more than the ones below it.
Also, easily, easily their worst album cover. At least the previous two albums had pretty artwork.