Drones

Overall, Drones marks a welcome return to a more familiar, more grounded sound. It may well be that the concept makes more sense on the stage than on the stereo, but, for now, this will do just fine.

Luckily, a good sizeable chunk of this album is good enough to stand alone, stripped of the high-minded concepts.

This is the band’s most focused work in a decade, ditching the genre walkabout of 2012’s The 2nd Law for a more polished variant of their early, unkempt sound.

Muse is one of the world's biggest rock bands, but for all its missionary zeal, Drones preaches to the converted.

At their most potent, Muse seem like an unstoppable force, using a three-piece rock setup to truly push boundaries.

Even if Muse is only sort of back, they've still taken a vital step in the right direction. With a little luck, maybe the next Muse album will finally be the one that has them live up to their astronomical potential.

In spite of its melodic clarity, Drones ultimately succumbs under the weight of its narrative, which strains for political and social commentary but winds up closer to parody.

There are snatches of salvation (the breathless chug “Revolt”), but every time Drones aims for dystopian profundity, it hits Styx-level goofiness.

Muse comes back with a slightly more focused and hard rock-flavored followup to the 2nd Law.

Lyrics have always been a chink in the almighty Muse’s armor, and that chink has grown into a full-on crisis on Drones.

At one turn, Drones will seem a savior for the world’s big, dumb stadium rock and at another it’ll be like a Queen record for dudes in Guy Fawkes masks.

Drones can be chalked up as one step forward, one step back for this British trio. If Muse is able to find a way to express its political concerns in a manner that doesn’t bash the listener over the head, they might just find a way to get both feet headed in the same direction.

You could argue that Muse aren’t taking this seriously; that its pomp and cheesiness is intentionally tongue-in-cheek. They need to remember, however, that Spinal Tap were actually entertaining.

Whatever pleasure can be generated from Bellamy’s admirable melodic sense and overblown hooks is negated by Muse’s insistence that they’re profound rather than fun.

Muse have never been interested in doing things by halves and they don't so much as lean into prog these days but rather wear the face off it, yet there is a difference between bold experimentation and simply throwing in too much and sounding terribly burnt out as a consequence.

Drones, more than The Resistance, more than The 2nd Law is a showcase of Muse’s utter downfall into a simple, generic alt-rock band, with more cheese than they know what to do with.

It’s a disappointing record on every level. For devoted fans, the uncomfortable truth is that they’re stuck in a glam-rock rut, which – sorry Musers – Royal Blood now do with twice the urgency and zero guff.

Muse have always been ridiculous and overblown, but at least they used to be a ton of fun. Can anyone remember how long ago that was?

They’re aiming for George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, but in terms of social commentary, it’s not even Taylor Swift’s 1989.