Muse have just scored a hat-trick of own-goals. It began with 2009’s The Resistance, where the band’s arena status truly started to go to their collective head, resulting in a bloated, tacky album. It got worse with 2012’s The 2nd Law, which featured some of the band’s most lifeless and meagre musical efforts to date, replete with embarrassing dubstep breakdowns and hackneyed political commentary.
From all reports, Drones was going to be the album to break the cycle, with the UK three-piece intent on becoming a band again. Disappointingly, the finished product is a vicious reinforcement of said cycle. At its core, the album is an exercise in self-sabotage. For instance, when Matt Bellamy and co. get stuck into a big, chunky riff on Psycho, the moment is ruined by atrocious lyrics (“Your arse belongs to me now”) that sound like the dialogue of a generic drill sergeant. Defector, meanwhile, shows signs of life with a mammoth Zeppelin groove, before being buried in robot voices and shrill falsetto.
For a band already at risk of becoming parody of their former selves, Drones sends Muse well beyond the point of salvation. Another massive letdown.
BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
