I think The Resistance is more consistent, only one truly awful moment in Guiding Light. Drones has a few, but it's more consistent than T2L and it has 3 great songs on, which is perhaps more than TR.

I could be far out in saying Reapers has a 'classic rock' sound. The blues riff, guitar tones and simple drum part in the chorus do sound very ACDC inspired to me (and I think Matt might have said this?). I tried to explain why I dislike The Globalist so much. Maybe I'm too critical of it, but I would be surprised if anyone here has played it to one of their friends to try and convince them Muse are a good band.

I didn't know. What's he taken it from, is it actually a piece of Bach or from some other classical composer?

Whilst writing a review for Drones, I realised I do have a couple of controversial Muse opinions. 1. The Globalist is one of the worst songs Muse have ever done. 2. Undisclosed Desires is Muse's 2nd best pop song after SMBH. I would rate the following: SMBH > UD > Dead Inside > Madness > Starlight > Mercy > Follow Me > Revolt

With the album over a year old I don't think my opinion is likely to change much more. My final thoughts on the album: Dead Inside 8/10 I cringed when I first heard the "Dead Inside!" synthesized vocal intro, and still think its an awful way to kick off an album. Muse's best albums all have opening songs that build up suspense before a big moment (AP's crashing piano & NB's big riff my favourites). However, I quite enjoy the song for the most part. I love the vocal melody, which is especially good in the verses and enjoy the bass line. It goes overboard in the 2nd half of the song and the cheesy chord progression that accompanies it could have been more original. Psycho 6/10 Great riff.... unfortunately that's just about it. Psycho was such a let down after being so hyped up from hearing the old riff in the first teaser. Its fine, but just repeats the same thing over and over. The supposedly climatic chorus is heard instrumentally in the first 30 seconds of the song, and the song never reaches a higher point than that. The "riff" would have been much better suited as an epic outro or a breakdown after a faster paced song imo. Mercy 4/10 Bang average pop song that didn't bring anything new to the table. I've never really enjoyed Muse's major key 'anthems' - Biffy do that side of pop rock much better imo. It was better live, but possibly just becuase we got confetti. Reapers 9/10 Interesting 'classic rock' direction that I haven't heard in Muse's sound before. Over their early career, A lot of Muse's most successful songs were fast paced rock songs. These days, they seem to write very few in that style, with Reapers possibly being the only song to fit into that category from the last two albums - they now seem to favour slower, more lumbering rock songs (Supremacy, Survival, The Handler, Psycho). Despite that, Reapers feels a little disjointed between its many sections. It took a few listens before I was comfortable with the verse to chorus transition and the outro still sounds like an afterthought rather than an obvious direction to take (I think the abrupt change from G major to D minor didn't help this). The Handler 9.5/10 Having called it lumbering, I can now make amends with "The Handler" by crowning it my favourite song off the album and one of my favourites of the year. In fact, my favourite 'slow heavy' Muse song since Fury. The final section, while a little overdone, plays with my emotions in a way that I haven't experienced with Muse since first hearing Absolution. However, it does sound extremely similar to the last section of Dead Inside... perhaps that's intentional? Defector 6/10 Its fine - but definitely filler. Like Psycho, it suffers from being overly long and repetitive. Funnily enough they are both rare for Muse songs by starting with a chorus before the first verse - safe to say it doesn't suit them. Never really understood the desire for it to get more gig time. Revolt 2/10 Up there with Muse's worst songs. The backing vocals in the pre-chorus are truly horrendous. It re-affirms my belief that Muse suck at happy songs in the major key. Has one little glimmer of redemption in the vocal line at the end of the chorus, which is very Muse-y and interesting to listen to - then I realised how inappropriately indulgent it sounds for what was supposed to be a fun pop song. I can't believe this was made a single. Aftermath. First half 7/10. 2nd half 2/10 Really like the the intro with the blues-y guitar. First verse is good too, then right on cue comes in the cheesy major chorus. However, I could have forgiven the song if Muse used one ounce of self restraint... but no, of course that was never going to happen and the song ends by drowning itself in a horrid cheesy mess. The Globalist 1/10 Perhaps controversial, but this was my least favourite song on the album. For me, Muse's biggest ever let down after billing the song as "Citizen Erased Part II". It comprises of three poorly stitched together sections, only one of which is an original composition. The first and last sections are poor imitations of their much better originals. Matt's frolicking, wanky piano rendition of Elgar's Nimrod variations in the last section is butchered even further by removing the climax of the phrase, which is presumably because he can't sing high enough (which is fine, but he shouldn't have attempted to sing something he couldn't give justice to). This song isn't even a joke - I get the vibe that the guys take it seriously. This is a serious contender for the worst Muse composition imo. Drones (song) 7/10 I don't still listen to it, but I liked the idea to explore a Bach chorale style composition. Its certainly pretentious, but it sounds good. I think Matt uses a couple of more modern composing techniques in a few places, which is a little jarring, when the rest of the song is so strict. Nice idea though. Drones (album) 5/10 Overall, I find that "Drones" only has three songs that I am still listening to: Dead Inside, Reapers and The Handler. It isn't a great album, but is a step in the right direction after the disaster that was T2L - I definitely appreciate the return to a more rock orientated album. However, for Muse to come out with another great release, I think they need to take a step back and write music for music's sake, rather than another soundtrack for their bombastic live shows.

Assassin City of Delusion The Small Print Fury Muscle Museum Also would like to see Showbiz. I've seen almost everything else I really want to though. Other than missing Assassin and AP on this tour I'm quite pleased with the songs I got in my 8 gigs.

First song I heard was City of Delusion. One of my mates learnt the drum part and played along to the song in a school talent show - I went out and bought Black holes the next day!

Oh shit yeah I forgot about that, shame it wasn't played more on that tour

My first gig ever from any band was Teignmouth 2nd night, which must have been Uprising's 2nd performance. I'll never forget being surrounded by screaming fans nearish the front and being slightly terrified, when Chris walked on with his sawn-off head bass and laid down this monstrous bass line - It sounded massive, especially with the great outro. Shame that it sounds dogshit nowadays!

Seeing as Reapers and The Handler are very unlikely to return next tour, I'm not sure if I want any Drones songs to stick around. Psycho didn't pack the punch I hoped it would, although maybe they'll crank it up if its played later in the set. Mercy and Dead Inside are ok live, but there's no way they can squeeze them both in when Starlight and Madness are almost certainly going to stick around, especially considering the next album will bring at least two new poppy singles.

Radiohead style. Knights of Cydonia Reapers Assassin The Small Print Map of the Problematique MK Ultra Muscle Museum Citizen Erased Space Dementia Ruled By Secrecy Sunburn Butterflies and Hurricanes The Handler New Born Plug in Baby Bliss Blackout Animals Dear Star Micro Cuts Showbiz Hyperchrondriac Music Stocholm Syndrome Take a Bow

I actually quite enjoyed the additional guitar part that Matt added to the last chorus of Resistance era Stockholm Syndrome, but I agree that SS and other songs lacked energy. Only other performance highlight I remember from that era was how great Ruled By Secrecy sounded, but I don't think that it got played in T2L tour - so can't make a comparison. In general I think you're right, TR and Drones Tours had a lot of flat performances, especially for the hits. When I saw them in LA last year (which was probably a mistake) SMBH, Uprising, TIRO, Hysteria and even KoC sounded very stale. It also didn't help that the bass was super quiet this tour.

The Resistance is really growing on me - if Guiding Light was replaced with another song in the MKU or US vein then it would be a solid record I recon. Undisclosed Desires is probably one of their better pop efforts, in the studio at least

That'd be cool. Would love to see them have a go at Seven Names too!

Surely you'd rate Reading '11 over a fair few? I also thought Wembley '10 2nd night was superior to O2 '12 2nd night..