Is Muse's 'Drones' Their Best Yet?

Muse have released their seventh studio album, Drones, and can be considered as both the most socio-politically active and best music Matt Bellamy, Ben Howard and Chris Wolstenholme have made to date.



Muse's new album - Drones

The artwork on the album cover is a perfect reflection of what this album is all about; political control. It denotes that even those we see as authority figures are being controlled and are being manipulated by multinational business bosses who use their power to influence politics to make it work for them and not the general population.

Just the title of the album alone sets the tone for what's to come, a very dark, ominous feeling of authoritarian control and a human race that has been numbed into senselessness and has no feeling left of individuality. Muse have always used their libertarianism ideologies in their music but even for them the message behind this album is very strong.

The album opens with Dead Inside. A funky, electric number with dark lyrics of a distraught couple where clearly one is giving more than the other and ends with Bellamy telling how he has become as cold and calculating as his partner.

Next is a 0:21 interlude of a Drill Sergeant screaming orders at a recruit which follows into what I consider to be the best song on the album, Psycho. Psycho is built on a tremendous rock 'n' roll riff that demands a good head banging! The lyrics behind the riff portray the anti-humanity of war and brutal way in which governments turn human beings into senseless killing machines.  

Mercy, one of three released singles, is sung from the perspective of someone who has been broken emotionally, perhaps a veteran of war who can't fit into civilian life. It tells of ghosts and shadows eating away at this soldier's soul and the tyranny of the "powers that be" who are responsible for engaging in conflict. The first verse alone is incredibly poignant and immediately makes you feel sorry for anyone who is damaged by the consequences of violence:

"Help me
I've fallen on the inside
I tried to change the game
I tried to infiltrate
But now I'm losing

Men in cloaks always seem to run the show
Save me from the ghosts and shadows
Before they eat my soul"

 

 

Fifth on the album is Reapers, which opens with the sound that has become synonymous with Bellamy's guitar technique, a legato/tapping scale, and reminds the listener that yes this is still a Muse album! Reapers talks about how drones have upgraded warfare, and how even being an innocent civilian doesn't spare you. It's a very politically motivated song, seeing as drones are being used by allied troops in the Middle East and have killed civilians. It also covers how drones are replacing human fighters and how war is becoming more electronic, digital and advanced with every passing moment.

 

Military drone used in warfare

The Handler is lyrically similar to Psycho in that it describes soldiers as drones and can be programmed to kill on demand.

 

The second half of the album does brighten up however and a feeling of humanity returns to a setting where political tyranny has the world under the thumb and war rages on.

 

As before Psycho, before Defector there is a 0:55 interlude as John F. Kennedy delivers a speech describing the means by which higher powers go about seizing control, silencing those who oppose them.

 

Defector is delivered in the first person as someone who has escaped the clutches of a damning regime and is free to go about his life the way he wants to for the first time.

 

In the same vein as Defector, Revolt is an upbeat, punchy song, which encourages others to break free from the oppression of those at the top of society, as the defector did, and explains how anyone can make of life what they want no matter what anyone says.

 

Aftermath is the most subdued song on the album, with an atmospheric Pink Floyd sounding slide guitar intro, that mulls over the end of war and a world returning back to normal civilised behaviour. It describes a world where all the States have crumbled and humans are free from oppression. Aftermath builds this feeling of relief and humanitarian togetherness and launches into a release of emotion with a great solo by Bellamy.

 

The Globalist is the longest track on the album at 10:08 and explains the rebuilding process after the dramatic war and political ideology that pretty much destroyed it. Going along with the idea of building, this track starts off very docile, slow and acoustic and builds to halfway where it dives deep into a heavily bass driven electric sound that gets faster and faster. The track slows some 02:00 later and piano comes in with Bellamy singing of a world with nothing left, including countries and culture, just the love of humanity as if the world has been cleansed of evil.

 

The close of the album, Drones, is a very surreal song. Sung in the style of a harmonic church choir with no accompanying music it describes every member of their family dead, all killed by drones.

 

Overall this offering by Muse is in a completely different musical direction to their previous album 2nd Law, which was heavily influenced by dub-step, and very much goes back to their roots of guitar, bass, drums, harmonics and electronic overdubs.

Left to right: Wolstenholme, Bellamy and Howard

It's a brilliant album and is also a reminder of how good song writing can really be when done properly. The social and political ideologies addressed in this album are very sensitive so it's good that a band such a Muse has the confidence to take it on, and at the same produce fantastic music.