Carbo
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Everything posted by Carbo
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Didn't expect I'd be here in 2018 and say "the new Muse album is good actually" but here we are The only song I didn't care for was Get Up and Fight, but other than that this is probably their most confident album in a good while that plays to all of the band's over-the-top, cheesy strengths. This is definitely their best post-BHAR album.
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He's admitted in the past that he likes Muse when they embrace their Queen-inspired arena anthem aesthetic and go over-the-top. He has a soft spot for The Resistance, and has cited Defector as one of his favorite tracks on Drones. It's not all too surprising that he likes Pressure. It's a funky, fun jam where it feels like the band has no inhibition of playing it safe, and sees all the band members provide some good grooves that embrace the cheese in a wholesome way, rather than an edgy way like much of Drones was. Compare that to something like Dig Down which just feels like it was written off of a "Muse cheat sheet", or a lot of Drones which was very spotty with it's uninspired writing, iffy production and pretty generic tracks (with the exception of stuff like The Handler). I'm actually kind of sad that Dig Down is on the album. It's an extremely mediocre track that feels like it was written separately from everything else they've shown so far. I think Thought Contagion is growing on me somewhat at least.
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They actually referenced Rocket Baby Dolls? Lmao Song sounds very Black Hole-ish. It's pretty alright. Not as good as The Dark Side though.
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This new track almost makes me excited about Muse again. There's some real spirit and energy to it, feels like a natural evolution of Black Holes-era Muse. Real shame that the album has to be weighed down by three other tracks that are still pretty meh.
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Matt being influenced by Black Mirror is the ultimate "I don't know what I was expecting" moment regarding the lead up to the new album
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Probably the most blatantly "we made this for live performing" track Muse has done since Uprising.
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I wasn't implying they misled anyone, I was only speaking in qualitative terms. As far as that went, the majorly hyped return left much to be desired.
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Dead Inside is one of my favorite tracks from the album, but alongside Reapers, The Handler and Mercy (on a good day) I consider them all outliers on an average-at-best album. The album has the instrumentation but it doesn't really feel like it has any of the energy or inspiration. The Globalist drags way too long and has a boring finale, Defector / Revolt feel redundant alongside each other and Psycho is the most uninspired track they could ever use to say "we're back to making heavy music". It was only a step in the right direction in the sense that Muse rediscovered what it meant to have consistent sounds - at least compared to The 2nd Law - but the songwriting left much to be desired. Hell in some aspects I thought what highs there was to find in The 2nd Law were actually better than Drones. I still think despite BH&R being the line-in-the-sand transition that it gets way too much shit from fans. As far as being a stadium pop rock record it's pretty fantastic, and I'd argue as an album it's even better than Absolution.
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Honestly I'm fine with Muse writing songs I don't like, Drones was not the return to the hard rock "Absolution"-era sound they pimped it out to be, The 2nd Law is the prime example of a scattershot record, but for as bad as some tracks have been it's never felt like they were actually running out of ideas. At least when the band fucks up it's a really impressive kind of fuck up where the earnest belief that some of these tracks were good ideas gives them something of a value to gawk at. The spectacle of it is at least entertaining. But this song doesn't even get that out of me. It promises a bang but it ends in a whimper. I dunno, this kinda reaffirms what I've felt ever since Muse released Psycho. There's glimpses of great ideas in some tracks they make but if you decide a track like that should be the representation of an album; a generic riff taken from the storage which passed for a live jam but is hardly a full track basis for a band that's been in the business for two decades, it feels like they're resting way too much on their laurels. This, similarly, just lacks teeth.
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It's... ok. It sounds way too much like Madness and that has me worried the album is headed down the same schizophrenic path as The 2nd Law. The intro sounds really cool at first until you realize the chord progression is the same predictable shit. Why'd they have to do this song in a major scale? It'd been much more interesting in a minor scale and reminiscent a little more of older material. It'd give a little more variety in these tracks that they're obviously writing as live bangers, and the song might be enjoyable in that kind of context, but the material is starting to become indistinguishable.
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Surprisingly good review from Savethony Caltano. Expected him to be a bit more ruthless.
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After about three listens I feel confident in saying that it's probably the most middle-of-the-road Muse album so far. It doesn't sink to The Resistance, Showbiz or The 2nd Law but doesn't reach Absolution, Origin or BHAR. Well, I'd say it gets fairly close to BHAR. Favorite track is a toss up between Dead Inside, Reapers, The Handler and The Globalist. I also find myself oddly liking Aftermath. It's probably their best "mellow" mid-album track that breaks up the action alongside Falling Down. Having both Defector and Revolt on the same album strikes me as redundant. Easily my two least favorite tracks on the album. I suppose it's a good thing that there are only really two tracks I actively dislike. Still though, it's not necessarily an album that got me super excited. Even though T2L was way worse it was still relatively interesting to listen to due to the dares the band was taking. Drones doesn't really surprise much, save for Reapers and the mid-section of The Globalist, which is what I feel like the album could have used more of. The first half is overall more stronger than the second and despite the darker "themes" it sonically feels like a much more upbeat album than previous efforts in spite of a rocky exterior. It kind of goes into the other direction of what I expected in terms of heavy, and while that's not "bad" per se I really wish more of the album took notes from Reapers, The Handler and The Globalist since it's clear that when Muse wants to do heavy... they can really do heavy. Those songs are proof that there's still a drive to them that they've yet to tap into. Their sound is the best thing they have going for them in terms of justifying that cheesy subtext. Overall a solid effort but one that doesn't surprise too much and is probably the only recent album that feels like it could have been a lot more than a little less. It's the first time I felt like saying "come on Muse, you're showing perfect signs here of going the extra mile - commit onto that, don't waste the potential". Will probably enjoy a good number of relistens and I hope they expand on the things that worked here, because they're this close to finding a balance between the grandiose exterior they really wanted to pursue and the heavier rock roots that many fans love to see them do, and which clearly they themselves enjoy considering all the live jam sessions. Speaking of wasted potential the biggest let down was easily the closing track. I'm not sure what they were smoking there. That feels like it should have been something entirely different and if anything it makes me consider The Globalist as the real closer.
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Funnily enough I find myself not caring that much for this song's main section. The opening is great and feels like it's implying something a lot heavier than what the verse actually gives us. It just feels kinda weak.
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Very Starlight-y. Probably the most "Black Holes" track they've done within the nine years since. Even has the arpeggios that they loved using so much in that album. It's surprisingly rocky despite that though. I kind of dig it. I honestly expected most of the album to be more darker during it's first half though. This seems to imply that the mood will fluctuate a bit. If I'd have to rank the three currently released tracks it would be; Dead Inside > Mercy > Psycho
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Listened to the song for the first time in quite a number of weeks. I think I really love this song now. One of Muse's better tracks in recent history.
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The whole "greatest line" guy feels just like a really quaint way to cap off the track and sum it up considering the rest of the song lyrically is fairly well constructed and on-point. I can see why it's considered by people to be so "standard" though.
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Like There's not even much to discuss, only reason it exists is so someone can call completely pointless dibs on the OP itself. If someone has something important to say about the song they can eventually make a thread but right now does anyone really care? A good thread at least has a good opening post that can serve as the basis for discussion
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Come to think of it, some parts of the song remind me of Depeche Mode. Maybe that's why I dig it.
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I went into Dead Inside with way too low expectations on account of me thinking Psycho was just kinda lazy. If anything, Dead Inside to me feels like a much more confident song in spite of it's general approach. It really just affirms to me that, come whatever may, Muse only really feel solid when they're comfortable in their own shells. I dunno, I like this a lot more than Madness or Uprising. It feels much more deliberate. The former felt like it was too meandering, the latter felt like it didn't really get as intense as it should have. Even if this is just some transitional track it sits well with me. I probably shouldn't let this track excite me too much because the rest of the material is undoubtedly going to be way different, but overall it's really jammy and Matt can still sell his cheesy as hell vocals as long as he has the drive.
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A context we don't even know yet. If it won't fit once we hear the full record, fair enough. But I already feel like the transition between this and Psycho is done decently.
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Yeah, tried this out now and you're not entirely wrong here. The Drill Sergeant clip makes for a nice beat interlude between both tracks looking at it now in retrospect. Makes the transition pretty palatable.
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I can't really see this song being anything other than an opener honestly. If the album is mainly straight up rock, I don't see a song like this working anywhere else. It feels a bit like Supremacy to me in terms of buildup with Panic Station's "funk" in the main portions.
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On first listen I like it a lot more than Psycho, which mostly left me "eh". Very catchy. Has a nice beat to it. The final segment is also really pretty.
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I like it.
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'Drones' discussion thread (part 2): A Game Changer for Humanity
Carbo replied to FabriPav's topic in Songs & Releases
So if Drones is the last track on the album I take it we can expect that cheesy chanting rock track to be it huh? Guess that puts it with BHAR as one of the few albums to not have a moody track as a closer.