Album review: Muse, Drones

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11 Jun, 2015 05:00 PM3 mins to read

Muse sticks to its heavy-handed prog-rock approach on new album Drones.

A man with a bomb for a head cradling a baby. A human puppet controlled by chains. A war machine coming apart at the seams. And a cartoon rocket smiling as it drops bombs disguised as teeth.

The artwork for Muse's new album wants you to know the world is in a bad way. So does the music. Drones' first words feature Matt Bellamy shrilling "Dead inside" like he's Freddie Mercury overdosing on helium.

So far, so Muse. With their over-the-top attitude to stadium rock, the Brit trio have always threatened to land on planet Darkness. On Drones, they strap on nuclear rockets so they can get there in double time.

"My heart has become a cold and passive machine," bellows Bellamy on The Handler, a song which takes less than 90 seconds to have the front man delivering a Justin Hawkins falsetto over fuzzed-out guitar grunt.

Yes, Drones is a rock opera about the end of the world. With "Mutt" Lange on board, it might very well be the best AC/DC album since the last AC/DC album. It is big, ballsy, bold, bombastic, and, at times, bloody ridiculous.

But it's also the simplest, most accessible Muse album since 2003's Absolution. It is hilariously awesome. You can imagine Drones soundtracking a War of the Worlds-style stage show with lasers, snow machines, bomb shelters, dancing dinosaurs, and camp drill sergeants and being absolutely incredible.

Their end-of-the-world antics are so straightforward, Drones is endlessly enjoyable. Check out the ridiculous riffage and Bohemian Rhapsody operatic switch-ups on Defector. Then there's the robotic stomp of Dead Inside, which turns the apocalypse into an anti-love song that possibly references Bellamy's relationship woes with Kate Hudson. "Love will get you nowhere," he sings on Psycho, which sounds like Mechanical Animals-era Marilyn Manson with its glam metal riffs and gothic vocals.

Then there's Reapers, Drones' mid-album highlight that starts with Angus Young-aping shredding, morphs into a skittery punk song and delivers the album's grandest hook yet. You'll be playing air guitar, hollering the chorus - "You've got the CIA babe, and all you've done is brutalise" - and grinning from ear to ear within seconds.

All this is so out of step with anything that's going on in music in 2015, that Drones sounds like it's is being beamed in from another planet. With that in mind, it comes to a close the only way it possibly can: with Bellamy layering up his vocals to deliver a barely believable, barely listenable, a capella opera about metal overlords.

It's final proof that Muse have disappeared into their own asses - and they're probably not coming back. You'd be crazy not to join them there.