Album: Drones
Band: Muse
Rating: **
I waited several months before reviewing this album to give it every chance to grow on me but it just isn't working out. I can't help but feel the album should be called Clones such is the amount of material that sounds similar to other bands I love. Muse have a penchant for over the top albums incorporating orchestral arrangements, sampling, multi-layered tracks and effects but this album is stripped back and without all the extras you notice songs that are lyrically weak, strange dialogue interspersing tracks and songs that don't flow well as a collective.
I purchased Muse's first album upon release in 1999 and immediately saw a large Queen influence as well as finding similarities with Radiohead and Rush. I told myself that they would be the biggest band on the planet in 15 years time, as it would take a while for people to discover their sound, and for them to find the right way to express themselves. However 15 years on I'm still disappointed. They've teased me with a couple of albums which almost achieve greatness, singles which haven't quite hit the mark, and they often show potential but they just haven't taken that big leap that see's them releasing something extraordinary. As a live act I've seen them twice and that didn't do it for me either, with swearing between tracks, and as their songs have a low audience participation factor they did drag a bit.
Admittedly I'm much more familiar with the band's influences then most others, having listened to them for half a lifetime before Muse came along. Muse never shied away from their influences but I feel as though they've blatantly ripped off elements of Queen, Rush, Def Leppard and the Manic Street Preachers to create something that is significantly worse then any of those bands best offerings. Its hard to enjoy the album when excerpts between tracks (Drill Sergeant/JFK) don't make it sound any more interesting or contribute to it being something like a concept album. A band like the Manic Street Preachers would have used these more intelligently to make some sort of political statement or to make a song considerably darker such as 'Of Walking Abortion'. Revolt sounds like a reworking of Def Leppard's 'Stand Up Kick Love into motion' and given the album uses the same producer this doesn't surprise me. The Globalist is a perfect fusion of Queen's the 'Prophet Song' mixed in with Rush's 'Necromacner' which has a killer guitar solo in the middle. Imagine a piano epic that builds with a killer guitar sequence in the middle and you have The Globalist but you have to wait through 5 minutes of boredom to get there. I usually skip it. If they performed it live that would be the ideal time for a toilet break.
Aftermath is probably my favourite track on the album and has some nice piano work and effects but it is very Kent like in the arrangement and reminds me very much of Månadens Erbjudande. The last song Drones is just a series of vocal overdubs very reminiscent of Queen's 1977 Earl's Court concert where Freddie Mercury sang the harmonies to White Man and the Prophet Song by himself using an echo. Maybe I'm the only person left alive in the world that even has a copy of that concert but I'm pretty confident Muse would've seen the footage of that on BBC growing up in the UK. The single Mercy sounds like circa 2010 Ash with some cutesy electric piano and a better vocalist and its okay but it could've been so much better.
So I'm not influenced by videos, reviews written by other people or whatever band people are raving about, I listen to what I like. If I was influenced by others I'd be listening to U2 like the rest of the world. And quite possibly if your expectations were lower you'd enjoy the album or if you're sick of overdubs and over-complex arrangements then it could work for you but that is precisely why I listen to progressive rock. If the songs aren't complex with key changes, time changes, numerous instruments and go for ridiculously long periods of time then I'm bored and would rather listen to punk as at least the song is over in 3 minutes and I get some high octane attitude. This isn't a new problem for me either, I've picked up on similarities between songs on previous albums but here its like they're caught between 2 worlds and are still figuring out what works best for them as a band. Maybe its the journey that's taking too long, maybe I rate them so highly I want better now, quite possibly its the mix as I notice that as well but its the lack of complexity which does it for me. Maybe their next effort will be their Sergeant Pepper and all will be forgiven but until them I'm forced to downgrade their rating and take the album off my rotation.
