Review Summary: Muse create an album for the Lowest Common Denominator.
It's taken me a long time to articulate why I think Drones is so poor. It was hyped as the return of Muse, their triumphant return to the alt-rock fore. Snippets of the songs were encouraging, with riffs resurfacing from improvised performances of the past. Matt Bellamy proudly proclaimed that a sequel to perhaps their greatest song, Citizen Erased, was on this upcoming album. It was exciting!
What released, however, was underwhelming, disappointing and just outright bad. Drones is littered with filler tracks, embarrassing skits and awful lyrics. It is bland, uninspired and formulaic. What was hyped as a return to form became the worst album the Devon trio have released.
Opener Dead Inside is passable. Despite poor lyrics, the energy of the song is enjoyable and the final minute or so are fun, with interesting Dom Howard drum fills and stadium-filler guitar. However, it only takes until the third track, Psycho, and its opener, [Drill Sergeant], for Drones to show its true colours. The 'Military Industrial Complex' motifs in this album are so hamfisted and forced that they go almost beyond satire. It is easier to count what tracks don't have the word 'drones' than what tracks do. Lyricism has never been Bellamy's strong point but it is at an all-time low here, as shown in track 5, Reapers (which is actually one of the less bad songs on Drones):
'You rule with lies and deceit
And the world is on your side
Cause you've got the CIA, babe
But all you've done is brutalise'
There are few redeeming qualities to Muse's seventh album. The only truly great song is track 6, The Handler. While the lyrics are still very on the nose, the musicality is interesting and the verses are powerful and feel like Muse of old. If Drones had been an album of tracks like The Handler, it would've been good, maybe even excellent, but unfortunately, they've settled for mediocre and boring.
None of this is shown more than in the second to last song, The Globalist. Hailed by Matt as the sequel to Citizen Erased, by the time I got to this song on my first listen I was thinking 'It's okay, at least Citizen Erased pt. II will redeem this album'. But no, the ten minute song is just as disappointing as the rest of the album before it. Three ideas that have not been particularly fleshed out are mashed together with no attempt to blend them, and Muse have called it a day. It's annoying as much as anything, because one gets the feeling that it could have been so much more, but instead they decided that it'll do. That's what Drones is, it's fifty minutes of 'that'll do'.
Drones is what happens when a YouTuber makes a 'How to do a Muse album' video. It's what happens when you write songs pretending to be Muse. It's bland, boring, and with only one standout track. And with the recent releases of their two latest singles, Dig Down and Thought Contagion, it only seems to be getting worse. Maybe the over the top skits were tongue in cheek, maybe it was all intentional. If it was, then honestly, I prefer when Muse took themselves seriously. I wish they still did, because they were good once, honest.
