DRONES

Drones is not a bad album, but it is noticeably not as good as Muse's 2000s albums. While the lyrics to "Dead Inside" are actually good, the song is really a less interesting "Madness" that sounds like an 80s style U2 song with a clichéd chord progression. "Psycho" is cheesy, but it is silly in a good way. "Mercy" is a musically interesting song and at the same time a pop hit type song, and the somewhat unusual keyboard part in the verses works pretty well. "Reapers" is a highlight mainly because of the guitar playing and a good solo with different parts, even though the lyrics are starting to get repetitive with the mention of drones. "The Handler," whose beginning is like an angrier version of the beginning of "Come Together" by The Beatles, is another highlight, with good high-pitched singing and a buildup in the guitar solo and bridge. "Defector" is a fun rock song with its vocal harmonies and exciting guitar solo, and it does a great job incorporating the JFK intro into the song and a great part of the speech at the end of the song. "Revolt" is in my opinion one of the worst Muse songs. The verses do have an interesting rhythm, but that's about it for the good stuff in the song. The song has a cheesy late 80s rock feel, and the chorus is poorly written in just about every way in that it does not fit with the rest of the song, it uses the 1-5-6-4 chord progression, and the lyrics are incredibly shallow and repetitive. "Aftermath" is a ballad with a well-written melody, but is not very deep musically or lyrically. "The Globalist" is the main prog track on the album, and it is good but not amazing. The three distinct sections are all great, especially the fun middle section with a buildup and a hard rock guitar riff, but the sections do not feel very connected. The album ends with the title track, which is a boring a capella track that is hard to follow and just continues to repeat words that have become cliches through their use throughout the album, and it is a very disappointing ending.