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Muse announce seventh studio album - DRONES

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Globalist has grown on me too. It feels closer to the Exogenesis trilogy, specifically #2, with some lines sounding like the opening of Survival

Defector's chorus is so repetitive, but catchy.

I... think I like Revolt. Sure it's not the kind of song I wanted, but it's fun.

S Tier: Handler
A Tier: Reapers, Globalist
B Tier: Defector, Revolt, Dead Inside, Aftermath
C Tier: Mercy
D Tier: Psycho (if it removed the stupid drill sergeant stuff and if I could remove "ass belongs to me" it'd be better), Drones
 
Revolt is the only song I have reservations about. Its weirdly up-beat for them, and borders on sounding like The Darkness or something.

I agree with whoever said the songs are better on the ears when not accompanied by their terrible lyric videos and even more terrible story videos.

Aftermath is Matt attempting to do a Knopfler, and that's a good thing. Nice change of sound. The Globalist starts off like a Western, which is nice too - kinda wanna play that intro back to back with Knights of Cydonia :)

It's a good album. It's going to be very good live. They're playing Download festival in the UK, clashing with Marilyn Manson and Andrew WK. As someone who likes both AWK and Muse that's quite annoying.
 
I will gladly take this album over the last. I'm not saying that it's their best shit or anything, but it's closer to what I loved about the older albums.
 
Early concensus on this album? I was disappointed by their last release. My favorites are Absolution and Origin, how does this album rank?
 
yyzjohn said:
Early concensus on this album? I was disappointed by their last release. My favorites are Absolution and Origin, how does this album rank?
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Imo is better than the last two albums, and I liked 2nd law. Lyrics are a bit hit and miss, like always, but musically they are sill on top form and there are the best guitar+bass parts lines since BH&R.
 
I love the way The Globalist is basically channelling / plagiarising Elgar's Nimrod at the end

edit: they've got to be joking with Drones haha... kinda feels like its meant to go along some sad drone-death footage or something but I can't imagine them recording that without laughing their asses off. Should have been a secret track that plays after 2 minutes of silence.
 
yyzjohn said:
Early concensus on this album? I was disappointed by their last release. My favorites are Absolution and Origin, how does this album rank?
Click to expand...

Bass lines amazing.
Drums are class.
Lyrics bad, even for Muse.

I find this album to be very 'Muse Formula' in how they structure the songs. I know you could say 'it's their style', but it's far too 'text book' now.
 
Don't see how psycho is that bad. Don't find the lyrics particularly cheesy. Only thing that's hard to listen to is the kid shouting his war cry... Which is realistic not bad ass which I guess is the point.


Over all I'm happy to hear the best stuff they've put together but I'm not into this war drone protest theme album. They have to be struggling to come up with new topics. I think our favorite albums from muse consist of things the record labels forced in.

They're at their best when they're jamming on their instruments not trying to be pop. It's possible they know this but don't want to give too much of what we love to hear or it won't be special anymore.
 
Cyd0nia said:
I love the way The Globalist is basically channelling / plagiarising Elgar's Nimrod at the end

edit: they've got to be joking with Drones haha... kinda feels like its meant to go along some sad drone-death footage or something but I can't imagine them recording that without laughing their asses off. Should have been a secret track that plays after 2 minutes of silence.
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It's not plagiarising, because it's credited in the booklet as a re-arrangement.
 
Psycho, Reapers and The Handler are going to be incredible live.

All of the tracks are much better in context without their terrible marketing videos, and I think this is much more rocky and enjoyable than the last couple of albums but I do hope they don't try a "concept" album again too much in future

Their musical ability is never in doubt, he's just not a good wordsmith sometimes.

edit: I don't mean the channelling / plagiarism comment as a criticism, I love Nimrod! Haven't read the booklet properly yet... and despite my comments here, I'm loving the album more with every listen
 
Druz said:
Don't see how psycho is that bad. Don't find the lyrics particularly cheesy. Only thing that's hard to listen to is the kid shouting his war cry... Which is realistic not bad ass which I guess is the point.


Over all I'm happy to hear the best stuff they've put together but I'm not into this war drone protest theme album. They have to be struggling to come up with new topics. I think our favorite albums from muse consist of things the record labels forced in.

They're at their best when they're jamming on their instruments not trying to be pop. It's possible they know this but don't want to give too much of what we love to hear or it won't be special anymore.
Click to expand...

At least put the actual audio from full Metal jacket instead of just doing a bad impression
 
I just head the full album (which is now available as a playlist on Spotify)...

... I.. just dont know.. It feels kind of lazy to me. Perhaps it will grow on me. Certainly looking forward to an arena tour later this year though.
 
Revolt and Aftermath feel like the album becomes a full on musical

Globalist is amazing, but fuuuuck why couldn't that solo be like 30 seconds longer
 
The reviews for this album haven't been the greatest so far. In my opinion musically its so much better than the last 2 albums. I enjoy all the songs which I can not say for the last two and especially the last one.

The reviews do point out the flaw of the album the lyrics. I do agree they lack nuance and can get comical at some points.

If he wants to do this again he needs to find a balance and not get to the point where some in the reviews call the lyrics written by a teenager after reading 1984.
 
I have it downloaded and ready to go for the commute home. I haven't liked a Muse album since Black Holes & Revelations so we'll see how it goes.
 
I don't think the lyrics are that bad apart from a couple of tracks. I mean, have you listened to Origins of Symmetry? I'm of the opinion The Handler is their finest work, musically and lyrically, since BH&R. Goddamn it's good. I'm also becoming a fan of Defector. Reminds me of Starlight. Mercy too, but that has a more electronic sound.
 
Just got my vinyl, spinning now. Only heard two songs from the album, going in pretty fresh. This almost never happens nowadays, love it.

Edit: The LP sleeves have cover/single art for every song, which is a pretty damn sweet touch. It's really well put together.
 
After one straight through listen, this is clearly the best album they've put together since BH&R, and honestly I think you can make a case that it's the best since Absolution.

After 2nd Law which felt like a mish-mash of random songs the band were fucking around with, this is a return to a focused, singular work. And the high points of the album are really fucking high, and the low points are nowhere near the lows of the past several years.

Matt mischaracterized The Globalist as a sequel to CE, its not, but its good. Really fucking good. And also kind of maddening, as the blistering guitar work 2/3rds of the way (you know what Im referring to if youve heard the song) is an absolute MONSTER, and seriously should have been extended a good 20-30 seconds, like wow. But other than that, it's a seriously great track, and delivers on the promise of an "epic" way more than Exogenesis did IMO.

Some dodgy lyrics aside, the overall story concept works rather well. Man with nothing left gets absorbed into a totalitarian government/military machine, is used for all he is, wakes up to the reality of his nightmare, inspires a coup and the machine is brought down, happy ending, until it seems that the main character becomes what he has hated most and in his quest to reshape the world, destroys it, and in the end ends up as alone as he was when the album started. Obviously this was really the only option for a concept album story that you could expect from Matt Bellamy.

Here's a quick and dirty song ranking:

The Handler
Reapers
The Globalist/Drones
The Aftermath (people were down on this? It's lovely)
Dead Inside
JFK/Defector
Revolt
Mercy (I actually like this more than Starlight, as Matts vocals on that song never sat well with me)
Psycho/Drill Sergeant

There isn't a single song I don't enjoy, but what brings Psycho down for me is stuff like "your ass belongs to me" could have just as well been "yeah you belong to me" Something minor, but the crass language feels out of place compared to the rest of the album. I get it, but eh. I guess some people are down on Drones? But it really only works in full sequence as the closing titles of the album and outro of The Globalist. But other than that, this feels like a proper re-alignment for where the band should have been post BH&R. Matt's voice has never sounded better and is no longer afraid to belt out the falsetto, and all 3 of the guys are absolutely at the top of their game instrument wise. Like holy shit, everything sounds massive on this album. Makes me happy as this is a band I've been with ever since the release of Showbiz in 1999 so im glad to see them get back on their feet after the disastrous last album.
 
I have never really paid attention to the lyrics themselves, except to say I've always considered Matt's voice to be an instrument rather than someone saying words.

I love Muse and I enjoyed the album but I like it when bands try and find something new. People complain that this may be too close to previous work and they also complain that The 2nd Law was too much of a departure. There's no middle ground for them.
 
Just finished. Upon first listen, I like it a lot. Let me first say that the production on this record is tight as hell and the band sounds insanely good. Never heard Muse sounding this crisp and punchy before, it's fucking sweet.

Heard Reapers for the first time today and it sort of blew my mind, what a great tune. The biggest "eh" songs for me are Psycho and Drones. (though I like the initial lead-in from Globalist, it takes too long) The Globalist is also fantastic and works well with the "story album" concept they've got going.

It was a real treat to listen to this record all the way through only having heard Pyscho and Dead inside. Hearing a bunch of new songs while checking out the unique artwork for each track and going with the flow of the record is something I wish we all did more often... it's a great focusing in on only one thing.

Anyways, will listen more but I am liking this much more than 2nd Law.
 
yyzjohn said:
Early concensus on this album? I was disappointed by their last release. My favorites are Absolution and Origin, how does this album rank?
Click to expand...

This doesn't come close to touching Absolution or Origin. It's still filled with Queen-esque cheese like the last two albums, but it has a couple of decent songs.
 
I used to be a huge fan of Muse, would follow news and discussion about them every day back in 05/06... but after The Resistance (which I thought was okay) and The Second Law (I really didn't enjoy) I can't find myself hyped for this release. I'll give it a listen this weekend though, I'll always at the very least give their new releases a try
 
The instrumentation in all the songs is absolutely god-tier. However, the overarching theme/narrative of the album is handled in such a heavy-handed way lyrically that I almost prefer the aimless mess that was 2nd Law.
 
Only listened to the first three tracks but this is easily the best album they've ever released in terms of mastering quality. They must have changed their engineer.
 
Didn't expect much from the album, and now that I gave it a first full spin, I gotta say I'm pleasantly surprised. It flows really well, and I don't think there's a song I dislike. Bravo Muse!
 
leng jai said:
Only listened to the first three tracks but this is easily the best album they've ever released in terms of mastering quality. They must have changed their engineer.
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Must have. It is so fucking clean and sharp, the best they've ever sounded IMO.

Few more listens in, Reapers is the best song they've made since Black Holes and Revelations. What a jam. I need to see that live.
 
RoKKeR said:
Must have. It is so fucking clean and sharp, the best they've ever sounded IMO.

Few more listens in, Reapers is the best song they've made since Black Holes and Revelations. What a jam. I need to see that live.
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most of this album sounds like it was be incredible live. i'll probably see them on this tour. i've seen them 4 times and each time was incredible but with the last 2 albums being so-so (not all bad, but definitely more bad than good) i've skipped it
 
Finally got to listen to the whole thing. I love Drones, it felt so random after listening to the entire album I couldn't help but smile.

Revolt is kind of ok, I'm not sure yet if I like it or not.

Aftermath is good but it could have been so much better. I don't know why they decided to put all those random violins (which are really loud in my opinion) instead of keeping the guitar from the beginning through the entire song.

And I couldn't care less about The Globalist but I already thought that was going to be the case.

So, my rank:

Dead Inside
The Handler
Drones
Aftermath
Revolt
Reapers
Mercy
Defector
The Globalist
Psycho

Not really a fan of this album to be honest.
 
Seanspeed said:
Haven't heard every song yet, but so far,

Mercy
The Handler
Dead Inside

are *really* good. Nothing else has grabbed me.
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Bought the album(was only £5 on 7Digital), and after a couple listens, I still feel like these are the only standout tracks. Some others are ok, some I'm not big on.
 
Really digging the album. I absolutely hated the last album, and I only liked maybe 30% of Black Holes, so I'm glad this is closer to what I like from the band.
 
I'm really enjoying the album, my girlfriend and I find the whole 'your ass belongs to me now' parts of Psycho to be hilarious (she gets very involved with the 'I am a Psycho killer' parts too), and I think Reapers is the stand out track for me by far, followed by The Handler.

Does nobody else get vibes of Pink Floyd from this album? I feel like Defector and particularly Revolt remind me of the Waiting for the Worms/In the Flesh/Run Like Hell section of The Wall. Plus the Gilmour-esque solo in the first section of Aftermath conjured Floyd too.

Anyhow I'm enjoying it, the strong tracks more than make up for the duff ones.
 
The political themes are dumb in the way they were handled, and there's nothing quite as fun as Panic Station (dat bass line), but I still say it's an improvement over 2nd Law. People saying it's better than Resistance are nuts though.
 
Obviously early days but I'm not "getting" this record at all. Aside from Aftermath there's not a single say I really like. Some of the lyrics in particular are horrendous. I'll give it more time, but aside from the much improved mastering I'm disappointed.
 
I really like it, even with the more atypical tracks like Revolt. Drones is an absolute dud track though and such a shame they chose to finish on that. For a supposedly 12 track album, I do feel a little bit jipped in so much as we only really get 9 proper songs (though I do like JFK, it must be said).

As the majority of listeners have said, The Handler is the jewel in the crown. Matt's vocals have never sounded sweeter. It'll be a phenomenal track live, but then almost all of them sound like they will be too.

All told, far better than The 2nd Law. Whilst that album did have some brilliant songs (Supremacy, Madness, Follow Me), it will forever be remembered to me for featuring the abomination that is Save Me. I still can't quite believe they actually played that live at one of their concerts I went to.
 
Origin > Absolution > Drones/BH&R >> 2nd Law > Showbiz >> The Resistance

I have a very small gap between BH&R and Drones that could go either way. Its heights, like Knights and Problematique, were goddamn incredible. But in retrospect, there's nothing really that memorable about songs like City of Delusion or Hoodoo.

I like to play 2nd Law as an EP.

Supremacy
Madness
Panic Station
Survival
Follow Me
Animals
Unsustainable

Fantastic 7 song EP right there. It jumps the rankings considerably with the junk cut out.
 
Just listened to this album on Spotify earlier today. Never heard anything from Muse before, I always knew them as just "that band that the Twilight writer likes."

It was pleasantly surprising, one of the best rock albums so far this year. Very tight composition. The entire band sounds like a unit, they know when to hold back and when to let the metal out.

'Reapers' is the standout track to me, that one went straight to my favs playlist.
 
Goldberg said:
Just listened to this album on Spotify earlier today. Never heard anything from Muse before, I always knew them as just "that band that the Twilight writer likes."

It was pleasantly surprising, one of the best rock albums so far this year. Very tight composition. The entire band sounds like a unit, they know when to hold back and when to let the metal out.

'Reapers' is the standout track to me, that one went straight to my favs playlist.
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Yep I can't stop listening to Reapers. It's so damn good and made me want to pick up my guitar as soon as I got home.
 
second half of the album is such a disappointment. I don't get it why they make songs like Revolt, Defector and aftermath when they are capable of making The Handler and Reapers? Or whats this queen obsession? Reapers, The handler, Dead inside and first 7 minutes of Globalist are among the best songs they made but rest of the album is meh. right now my ranking is

Absolution > Origin > BH&R > Showbiz > 2nd Law/Drones > The Resistance
 
First half of the album is really solid but the second half dwindles a deal. Having both Defector and Revolt on the same record strikes me as pretty redundant and the pace of the album kind of falls a bit to the wayside. It is a lot more rocky of an album but not the way I imagined it. The mid-section of The Globalist is more what I expected it to be like honestly.

It's hard to say what my absolute favorite track on the album is but it's a toss up between Dead Inside, Reapers, The Handler and The Globalist. Aftermath ended up being a track I oddly liked.. a lot. The two tracks in the aforementioned paragraph are probably my least favorite, and I guess it's a good thing that out of 10 tracks there were only two that I didn't like.

I'd put this smack dab in the middle of best-to-worst Muse records, with Absolution, Black Holes and Origin as superior albums, and The Resistance, Showbiz and The 2nd Law as worse albums. In spite of that, I find that the two previous albums kind of left me with a bigger impression since I was more of a starry-eyed fan then. For better and for worse, The 2nd Law was much more of a dare and it was kind of exciting to listen to for that reason, even if a lot of it didn't end up working out. The Resistance was also a little bit more consistent with it's grandiosity even though I don't think either two had track qualities equivalent to Drones.

The title track really disappointed me, funny as that works, because I was looking forward to that one the most. I expected more of a Rule by Secrecy kind of closer for this one. It's weird how even though thematically this is one of Muse's more "darker" albums it's sonically one of their more upbeat ones.

Overall solid album I guess, not as great as I hoped but there's always next time, eh boys? I'm interested to see how they translate this one live.
 
So after listening for a few times now, I can safely say this album is pretty much Muse " in the middle" album for me. Still, it's better than most of what they have produced after Absolution and Origin.

The order for me would be:
Reapers/Handler (They are both the best really)
Dead Inside
Middle of Globalist
Psycho
Defector
Aftermath
Revolt/Rest of Globalist/Mercy Please.

Drones can go sit at the corner there. I have no idea why it's in here.
 
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