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Drones Album Discussion Thread

Spectrum IV

By Spectrum IV
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Aftermath is probably my least favorite song on the album, but that doesn't mean to say i hate it. Apparently I read it was written for Robert John "Mutt" Lange, a kinda homage. With that in mind I respected it more. I don't get the hate for 'Revolt' though, I really like this track. It has a B-side feel, reminded me a little of 'Crying Shame' or 'Easily' a little.

If it has a b-side feel to it, wouldn't it be fair to question why it's on the album?

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Jobby Defector

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Aftermath is probably my least favorite song on the album, but that doesn't mean to say i hate it. Apparently I read it was written for Robert John "Mutt" Lange, a kinda homage. With that in mind I respected it more.

 

Not sure why that would make you respect or like it more but, from what I've heard/remember, it was more a case of Mutt just taking a lot of creative control over it because that kind of song is his 'forte' or something, as opposed to it being any kind of tribute or 'homage'.

 

No idea how it would've ended up without his influence so I can't say he ruined it (and I doubt Matt would've let anything he wasn't ultimately okay with happen) but I think it's safe to say he didn't help.

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Mozza Assassin

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The album to me feels like a supposed 'successor' to BHaR but just doesn't come off as well at all.

 

The fact the last 3 albums now have had no meaningful B-sides suggests that their albums have been forced around making a set of songs and then releasing that rather than developing a catalogue of songs and picking the ones that best fit together.

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Could just be that they feel secure in which songs to take from the demo stage than they used to be. It could be that they simply write 11 songs and bam, there's an album. But considering they've talked about songs like Madness and Chris' songs being taken from their personal demo collections basically, I don't really think it works like that.

 

To give some background, Chris' songs was stuff that he had been working on by himself, and much later they sat down together and listened to his songs and picked the ones they felt were best/most Muse-like.

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serpentsatellite Escapee

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Considering Matt said he wasn't sure if The Globalist was going to make the album unless it turned out right, after he talked about it on Twitter and in an article, I would assume they had a back up plan that didn't mean leaving the album 13 minutes shorter.

I would assume they just don't spend time on the songs unless they feel like they have to, like one didn't work out or something.

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projektxtal Uno

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Considering Matt said he wasn't sure if The Globalist was going to make the album unless it turned out right, after he talked about it on Twitter and in an article, I would assume they had a back up plan that didn't mean leaving the album 13 minutes shorter.

I would assume they just don't spend time on the songs unless they feel like they have to, like one didn't work out or something.

 

It depends at what time in the album making process they had doubts about The Globalist, I imagine before they go into the studio they know what songs they want to record properly for an album. Any b sides they could release would probably be like Who Knows Who in quality, just home recordings.

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lurkinglurkerlurksagain Uno

lurkinglurkerlurksagain

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Could just be that they feel secure in which songs to take from the demo stage than they used to be. It could be that they simply write 11 songs and bam, there's an album. But considering they've talked about songs like Madness and Chris' songs being taken from their personal demo collections basically, I don't really think it works like that.

 

To give some background, Chris' songs was stuff that he had been working on by himself, and much later they sat down together and listened to his songs and picked the ones they felt were best/most Muse-like.

 

I didn't know that about Chris's songs! Cool to know.

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matthijs Escapee

matthijs

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Impressive! :pope:

 

...But in this way it reminds of the organ+choir section of People Be Ready by Vanilla Fudge. Don't know precisely why.

 

Not thát impressive if you know that Drones is pretty much an existing piece of music with different lyrics :chuckle:

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Oy Escapee

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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.

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