It’s hard to maintain an opinion of Muse these days. When Origin of Symmetry came out in 2001 my thirteen year old self got roped in quickly; the big riffs of New Born and the theatrics of Citizen Erased, they were certainly an impressive band. They were certainly a band who rose quickly too, later albums seeing them a familiar name on rotation at Radio 1 and, while the first two albums saw them getting a fair amount of play on MTV2, Kerrang and other ‘alternative’ music TV channels, they’d feature more heavily on terrestrial tele. I never really got into The Resistance or The 2nd Law, the theatrical value too high for me. Despite this, I’ve decided to give them another chance with new album Drones, in the hope that maybe, just maybe, there’s enough here to be dragged in.
I think one of the issues I had in the past still remains, the production and the arrangements are so theatrical it comes off as comical at times; I was really getting into the riff-laden ‘Defector’ but then the Queen-esque harmonised vocal line in the chorus would come in and I found myself removed from the music. It’s a shame as musically the song is actually pretty good, bringing back favourable thoughts of the Muse I thought lost in the past. It’s not an isolated incident either, opener ‘Dead Inside’ starts out like a 90’s pop track, heading straight into a straight forward drum beat and synth bass line. The track gets better as it goes on, the guitar parts especially sound great, reminding me of seeing them live a few times in the past, the extended parts of songs which they used to (and for all I know still do, it’s been years since I last saw them) do so well. On that note, the riff from ‘Psycho’ sounds incredibly familiar to me, although the whole song has a slightly darker feel to it, the verse occasionally sounding not dissimilar from some Queens Of The Stone Age tracks.
The thing is though, no matter how ridiculous some parts sound, they do still sound like Muse. ‘Reapers’ has a ridiculous intro/bridge and the chorus sounds like some pop monstrosity but Matt Bellamy’s voice in the verse alongside the bass pattern instantly bring back good memories of growing up with Muse as a soundtrack. It’s also in tracks like ‘Reapers’ that you can tell the band are still having fun doing what they do; the elaborate guitar solo into one of the biggest riffs on the albums, it’s hard to dislike it. As the big riff at the end rings out you can just tell how good it’ll be as a set closer, there’ll be no one in the audience stationary during that.
‘The Globalist’, the rather lengthy penultimate track, on the other hand doesn’t sit that well with me. For one, the actual progressive nature doesn’t really work too well. The quieter section doesn’t ascend into a big riff, they move from one to the other with all the grace of a school bully pushing a smaller child off a stage and then, once there, it just seems to repeat one of the weaker riffs on the record, over and over until it peaks, ending in a piano ballad. It’s certainly no ‘Citizen Erased’.
On the whole, Drones is a generally enjoyable listen. The production is still ridiculous but it’s not on the same level as The 2nd Law and it’s thoroughly more tolerable to listen to. Actually, tolerable might not be giving it enough credit, it’s got plenty of big riffs and lots of sections which wouldn’t be out of place alongside their first few albums, minus the overkill production, leaving something that’s actually pretty impressive. If you, like me, dismissed their previous efforts for being too tacky, then you’ll probably enjoy this one. Just make sure you don’t give up at the ridiculous album intro.
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