Muse
Drones

I would not have signed up for a "Showbiz 2" as the seventh Muse album; I wouldn't have signed up for a return to the origins just now when Muse's creativity and eclecticism had reached their peak and probably still had many surprises to offer, maybe after another two albums but not now. But despite this, I quietly and anyway let myself be attracted by the idea of a "Showbiz - 16 Years Later" and still appreciated this new release.

“Drones” indeed almost completely forgets the stylistic variety and the experimentation of the previous albums to focus on a pure and raw rock'n'roll. An album more than ever dominated by guitar and bass, characterized by a dirty, scratchy, raw, mean sound, essentially in the alternative rock vein but with a certain eye also towards hard rock; they haven't sounded so purely rock even since the days of "Showbiz" and they haven't had such a dirty sound since "Origin of Symmetry" (which, although still very rock-oriented, already showed marked signals of remarkable creativity). The only track that maintains the futuristic and technological sound of the previous albums is the opener "Dead Inside" - dominated by synthesized sounds and practically similar to "Madness" essentially because of that little guitar added in the second half - perhaps forcibly inserted in the album to establish a hint of continuity with what has been done before while true symphonic rock can still be found at the end with "Aftermath" and "The Globalist", the longest track in their discography with its ten-minute duration: practically a prog piece with a slow first part, a decidedly hard part, and a final part dominated by piano and strings. But removing these few connection points with the recent past, what we come into contact with is something that is based mainly on anything but synths, electronic drums, machines, strings and whatever else... Solutions that are not completely excluded but are clearly marginalized in favor of heavy guitars and powerful basses. "Revolt" and "Mercy" (which is practically a much harder and less pop version of "Starlight" or "Resistance") for example have a synth passage typical of their style in the chorus (the second also has piano in the verses), "Reapers" has strange altered effects, "Defector" has a symphonic insert... but all of them are deliberately suffocated by tons of roaring guitars, sometimes barely audible. To risk an illustrious comparison, I would say this choice to return to the past reminded me a lot of Rush's "Counterparts," which saw them return to something harder and guitar-driven after years of prominent keyboards and synths.

But let's move on to the observations. We can start by saying that by returning to a rougher sound, they ended up losing that genius and variety that made them eclectic. Bellamy indeed offers a good performance and proposes good solos and some cool effects, still showing the ability to play with distortions, Wolstenholme accompanies very well with his heavy bass like in the old times... but the feeling is that of something too ordinary; the real strokes of genius are missing, the kind that you hear and are left speechless and which were plentiful in the previous albums, where every track was a true surprise; here the only truly genius track that leaves you speechless is unsurprisingly the one most distant from the overall sound of the album, the opener "Dead Inside". In essence, we have a very "ordinary" album, in some ways even a bit "academic", which offers 52 minutes of energy and adrenaline but never truly takes off towards the magnificent.

The somewhat annoying thing is that the choice to go back came just when the band's inspiration had reached its peak, and it makes you wonder what prompted Muse to make this choice right now. An acquaintance of mine argued that by further exploring their electronic influences and eventually choosing to fully dive into them, they would have ventured towards something even more grandiose. However, we know well that by becoming more eclectic, Muse also became more commercial and appealing to radios, which exposed them to considerable criticism; we know that exposure to the mainstream always fuels the criticism of those cultured types who, often with prejudice, shoot down anything that enjoys significant radio play, perhaps denying that an easier approach can also offer truly interesting ideas (and it's really their case). Perhaps these are the ones who convinced Muse to go back? In a Facebook comment about the band's recent past, a guy, in response to me talking about their journey as an "artistic growth", wrote that the only growth that interested them was in terms of playfulness and skillful response to the demands of the music business. Now, I sincerely don't know if Muse made this choice in response to those who didn't swallow the latest productions, I for one would say no, I don't believe that opportunism is in their nature, but I say that if there really exists a "cunning" album in their discography it is precisely "Drones", not the previous ones; in fact, my impression is that while the previous ones were indeed made to bring out their own creativity, this was instead made under the pressure of disappointed old fans; it's a bit like the mentality behind "Scenes From A Memory" by Dream Theater, that is, "hey guys, your previous record received a lot of criticism, go back to your roots a little!" However, I emphasize that it's just an impression that in the end proves to be false or presumed, Muse are absolutely not that band that writes under external pressures, neither from fans nor from record labels; also because frankly if they still wanted to make boatloads of money they would still write albums appealing to the mainstream rather than an album like "Drones" which, with its damned rock'n'roll sound, has a lot of chance on paper to reduce their popularity.

Anyway, debates aside, in the end, I calmly liked the album; I listened to it for a good month and really enjoyed the energy it transmits. I don't know if it will make it into my personal top ten of 2015 as it is a decidedly uneclectic album and I feel there are quite a few albums, both already released and upcoming, perfectly capable of beating it. However, I hope this "Drones" is just a manifestation of nostalgia for the past and that the band returns to something more varied and surprising.