‘Supermassive’ leviathans of alternative rock, Muse, have released their seventh studio album, Drones this June. With their typical sinister musical design and apocalyptic themes, Matthew Bellamy (vocals, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer) along with Christopher Wolstenholme (bass, keyboards) and Dominic Howard (drums, synthesizer) have put together a variously-inspired concept-album touching on subjects of war, mind-control and revolution. The album’s protagonist starts off as a helpless and malleable subject whom becomes brainwashed, militarized and programmed to exist as a weapon of war; a drone. Eventually, he becomes aware of the oppression inflicted upon him, breaks free and becomes a revolutionary who fights against the fascist government.
This Orwellian concept-album begins with a bang. The bass-heavy opener, “Dead Inside” pulsates with an electrified, industrial trudge seasoned with the Jeff Buckley-like falsetto of Matthew Bellamy‘s vocals. It’s a seemingly personal song of heartbreak and vulnerability, which conceptually separates itself from the overall narrative of the record.
“Psycho,” the album’s lead single, gets the story rolling with its ferocious guitar riff, unyielding rhythm section and themes of brainwashing and militarization. Peppered with a call-and-response dialogue between drill sergeant and recruit, the main character essentially transforms himself from man to machine; an inhuman, robotic drone controlled by and killing for the powers that be. The opening riff will ring a bell with veteran Muse fans. It’s known as the “6305030 riff” and has been played frequently during Muse’s famously vivacious live performances.
Our lead character becomes aware of his enslavement on the fourth track, “Mercy.” The chorus is larger than life and the lyrics cut straight through the heart. “Show me mercy from the powers that be. Show me mercy from the gutless and mean. Show me mercy from the killing machines. Show me mercy, can someone rescue me,” pleads an emotional Bellamy playing the part of a defected soldier.
It is immediately followed by the lightning-fast guitar intro of “Reapers,” which lyrically reveals the gruesome horrors of modern warfare. The musical approach on this track is almost as if the band opened up a how-to-be-Rage Against The Machine-handbook, and adhered to the step-by-step instructions. Following the Tom Morello-inspired second guitar solo, the highly-derivative rocker even has a culminating breakdown nearly identical to the Rage smash-hit, “Freedom.”
The authoritative puppet strings are cut during the mutinous sixth track, “The Handler” as well as on “Defector,” which features an excerpt from John F. Kennedy’s speech that followed the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. By the time “Revolt,” the impassioned ninth song arrives, the plot is in the thick of revolution. With its uplifting and inspiring chorus, the song holds a profound message encouraging awareness, activity and rebellion. A much-needed popular song for the times.
Floating through the spacey sound of “Aftermath” is our despondent lead character, weary and in need of love, refuge and companionship. Playing like a selection from Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut revised with a more contemporary slant, we begin to draw together and rise to an ultimate climax of soaring orchestration and the expressive vocal stylings of Matthew Bellamy. The epic finale, “The Globalist” is as Bellamy has been quoted as saying, “a prog-nightmare sequel to Citizen Erased,” a well-known favorite among Muse fans. “[The Globalist] is basically a narrative within itself about the rise and fall of a dictator, the end of the world, World War III and all the good stuff I like,” says Bellamy. The album finishes off with the haunting overlaying harmonies of the somber-sounding title track.
At the end of the day, Drones is a fair record. The band plays it safe with the nuts-and-bolts of their signature sound, and have whipped-up what comes off as a satisfying yet elementary interpretation of an Orwell novel. The album’s cover artwork is by Matt Mahurin and has been recently heavily-criticized for its blatant simplicity. Whether that sentiment exists within the music of the album itself, is entirely up to the listener. Here come the drones!
-By Joseph Conlon