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''Drones'' is the seventh studio album by English rock band Muse, released on 5 June 2015 through Warner Bros. Records and the band's own
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imprint. The album was recorded between October 2014 and April 2015 at the Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, with orchestral sections recorded at Officine Meccaniche in Milan, and was produced by the band and Robert John "Mutt" Lange. ''Drones'' is a
concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...
following a soldier's abandonment, indoctrination as a "human drone", and eventual defection. It also comments on the
Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...
’s drone program. After their previous albums incorporated orchestral and electronic music, Muse aimed to return to a more straightforward rock sound musically. ''Drones'' received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who praised its instrumentation but criticised its concept and lyrics. It topped 21 international charts, including the UK Albums Chart (where it became Muse's fifth consecutive number-one album) and the US ''Billboard'' 200. It sold over a million copies worldwide in 2015, making it the year's 19th-bestselling album. At the
58th Annual Grammy Awards The 58th Annual Grammy Awards was held on February 15, 2016, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The ceremony recognizes the best recordings, compositions and artists of the eligibility year, which was from October 1, 2014, to September 30, 20 ...
, it won the award for Best Rock Album. The album was listed on 41 in the NME albums of the year 2015. Diffuser.fm named it the 42nd best of the year. It was supported by an expansive world tour with appearances at several festivals and arenas, lasting from 2015 to 2016 and grossing $88.5 million from 132 shows. A concert film of the tour, entitled '' Muse: Drones World Tour'', was released in cinemas in July 2018.


Background

On their previous albums '' The Resistance'' (2009) and '' The 2nd Law'' (2012), Muse incorporated orchestral and electronic music. In December 2013, they released the live album and video ''
Live at Rome Olympic Stadium ''Live at Rome Olympic Stadium'' is a live album and video by English rock band Muse, which was released on 29 November 2013 in CD/DVD formats. On 5 November 2013, the film received theatrical screenings in 20 cities worldwide, and the next d ...
''; songwriter Matt Bellamy said the band wanted the release "to capture some of the extremes of what we've been doing since we want to go in a different direction in the future." Muse began writing their seventh album soon after the Rome concert. Bellamy stated that the album "should be something that really does strip away the additional things that we've experimented with on the last two albums... I kind of feel like it will be nice to reconnect and remind ourselves of just the basics of who we are." The band felt the electronic side of their music was becoming too dominant. According to bassist Chris Wolstenholme, some of the music on ''The 2nd Law'' was "somewhat of a bore to play live, and I'm not too certain how much of it worked for our shows ... The logical step was to strip away all the outer layers and go back to the way we started. Sometimes, making things simpler makes them more powerful."


Recording

In October 2014, Muse entered the Warehouse Studio in Vancouver. After having self-produced their previous two albums, Muse worked with producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange to spend less time mixing and reviewing takes and focus on performance. Tommaso Colliva and Rich Costey served as additional producers. After having used several different bass guitars and
effect pedals An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in el ...
for ''The 2nd Law'', Wolstenholme used only one bass guitar and a small number of pedals, hoping to find a cohesive sound. The first recording session ended on 19 October, with the band calling it "emotional". Muse re-entered the studio in November 2014. On 1 April 2015, drummer Dominic Howard and mixer Rich Costey indicated on their
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accounts that they had finished mixing the album. The result was a simpler, more consistent rock sound with less elaborate production and genre experimentation.


Composition

''Drones'' has been described as featuring alternative rock,
hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
, progressive rock, and progressive metal. It is a
concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...
about the dehumanisation of modern warfare. The story begins with " Dead Inside", where the protagonist loses hope and becomes vulnerable to the dark forces of "
Psycho Psycho may refer to: Mind * Psychopath * Sociopath * Someone with a personality disorder * Someone with a psychological disorder People with the nickname * Karl Amoussou or Psycho, mixed martial artist * Peter Ebdon or Psycho, English snook ...
". He eventually defects, revolts and overcomes his enemies. Answering fan questions on Twitter in September 2014, Bellamy said the album's themes include
deep ecology Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that promotes the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, and the restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with such ideas. Deep ecolo ...
, the
empathy gap An empathy gap, sometimes referred to as an empathy bias, is a breakdown or reduction in empathy (the ability to recognize, understand, and share another's thoughts and feelings) where it might otherwise be expected to occur. Empathy gaps may occu ...
, and World War III. In March 2015, he said: In an interview in the same month, Bellamy described ''Drones'' as "a modern metaphor for what it is to lose empathy ... through modern technology, and obviously through drone warfare in particular, it's possible to actually do quite horrific things by remote control, at a great distance, without actually feeling any of the consequences, or even feeling responsible in some way."


Promotion and release

On 26 January 2015, Muse revealed the album title in an
Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
video featuring a mixing desk with audio samples and a screen stating "Artist – Muse, Album – Drones." They also began using the
hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...
"#MuseDrones" on Twitter and Instagram. On 6 February, American artist Matt Mahurin announced he had created artwork for the album. On 8 March, the band shared a snippet of the new song "
Psycho Psycho may refer to: Mind * Psychopath * Sociopath * Someone with a personality disorder * Someone with a psychological disorder People with the nickname * Karl Amoussou or Psycho, mixed martial artist * Peter Ebdon or Psycho, English snook ...
" and mentioned "mixing with a very tight deadline". On 12 March, Muse released a lyric video for "Psycho" on their YouTube channel, and made the song available for download with the album pre-order. Critics have described "Psycho" as a
hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
and glam rock song with elements of
nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, sometimes called aggro-metal) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu met ...
. On 23 March, " Dead Inside" was released as the album's lead single with a lyric video on Muse's YouTube channel. On 18 May, Muse released a lyric video for "Mercy" and released the song on Spotify. On 29 May, a lyric video for "Reapers" was released on YouTube, followed by "The Handler" on 2 June and " FK with "Defector" on 3 June. In an album review for '' The Observer'', Kitty Empire commented that the pacy song "exposes the overlap between the unfeeling destruction of drone warfare and the unfeeling destruction wrought by people tearing each other apart," referring to Muse frontman Matt Bellamy's break-up from fiancée Kate Hudson. She also compared Bellamy to Yngwie Malmsteen, noting that the song contains "meaty riffs." ''Drones'' was released on 5 June 2015 in Europe and 8 June in the United Kingdom under Warner Bros. Records and
Helium-3 Helium-3 (3He see also helion) is a light, stable isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron (the most common isotope, helium-4, having two protons and two neutrons in contrast). Other than protium (ordinary hydrogen), helium-3 is the ...
. On 3 November, Muse released "Revolt" as the third single from the album along with a music video on iTunes. The fourth single "Aftermath" was released on 11 March 2016, and on 16 April, the final single "Reapers" was released as a 7" single for of Record Store Day.


Tour

From 15 to 24 March 2015, the band played the
Psycho Tour Muse are an English rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of Matt Bellamy (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Chris Wolstenholme (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Dominic Howard (drums). Muse released their debu ...
, six concerts in small venues in the UK. Starting with Radio 1's Big Weekend in May 2015, the band embarked on the Drones World Tour in support of the album, which led to the release of the live video '' Muse: Drones World Tour''. Bellamy confirmed they would tour North America in late 2015 and Europe in 2016, and also said they would be flying drones over the audience during the shows. However, two concerts in San Diego and Las Vegas were rescheduled due to "technical and logistical" challenges, while the drones were not used at all in three gigs, and one gig in Detroit saw several drones fail simultaneously. From 15 to 24 March 2015, the band played the
Psycho UK Tour Muse are an English rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of Matt Bellamy (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Chris Wolstenholme (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Dominic Howard (drums). Muse released their debu ...
, six concerts in small venues in the UK. The Psycho Tour was a short tour by the English rock band Muse during March 2015. The tour was first hinted at by guitarist and lead vocalist Matthew Bellamy's Twitter on March 10, 2015, with the tour being officially announced the next day on the band's Facebook page, along with the lyric video for "Psycho". The dynamics of this tour were different from what Muse had used in the past few tours, where they relied heavily on theatrical stage-craft and production, this tour took the band into smaller venues around the UK and the United States, the stage design was only a simple lighting rig and, for all but one concert, a backdrop displaying the cover art of their upcoming album. The band had not played in many of the venues since the '' Origin of Symmetry'' tour which took place from 2001 to 2002. The band was supported by Marmozets on the tour. Part of the tour also took place outside the UK in the United States. In May 2015, the band embarked on the Drones World Tour in support of the album, which led to the release of the live video '' Muse: Drones World Tour''. Bellamy confirmed they would tour North America in late 2015 and Europe in 2016, and also said they would be flying drones over the audience during the shows. However, two concerts in San Diego and Las Vegas were rescheduled due to "technical and logistical" challenges, while the drones were not used at all in three gigs, and one gig in Detroit saw several drones fail simultaneously. During the first leg of the tour, the band had their debut performance at Download Festival, which they also headlined. The new tour stage set up featured 11 LED pillars which could be manually pushed back and forth by members of the crew to accommodate the show. Bellamy compared this set up to The Resistance tour on his Instagram. An updated version of this set was used for the remaining dates in 2017, complete with new lighting rigs and lasers.


Reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''Drones'' has an average score of 63 based on 25 reviews. '' Kerrang!'' gave ''Drones'' a perfect score, calling it "a claustrophobic classic that sharpens the focus of what is possible in the name of high-minded rock." '' Q'' wrote that despite Muse's stated goal of returning to their roots, "''Drones'' is anything but back-to-basics
garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...
... befitting of its proggy conceptual narrative about state mind control, it's an album of rambling interests." David Fricke of '' Rolling Stone'' called the album "a truly guilty pleasure" and praised its "chunky update of the guitar-bass-drums charge" of the band's earlier albums as "what Muse do best." The '' NME'' wrote that the album's "trademark Muse themes of brainwashing, warmongering superpowers, suppression of The Truth and the urgent need to fight the hand that bleeds us still resonate in 2015, but obliquely ... Muse's music once more matches ellamy'sadventurous intrigue." AllMusic wrote that "it's hard to avoid use'sconclusion that war is bad, but this inclination to write everything in bold, italicized capital letters is an asset when it comes to music." Kitty Empire of '' The Observer'' wrote that despite the "trite" lyrics and "confusing" plot, some of ''Drones'' was "fist-pumpingly ace; a timely restatement of the need for popular music to evoke both thought and dopamine rush." Ian Cohen of '' Pitchfork'' found that ''Drones'' lacked subtlety and criticised its lyrics, writing, "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." Oliver Keens of '' Time Out London'' called the album's handling of the
drones Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...
subject matter "tactless and crass" and its story "as dull as dog food – told with the wishy-washy flim-flam of a frothing conspiracy theorist ... We used to moan that musicians didn't write about politics anymore. Based on this effort, maybe that's for the best." ''Rolling Stone'' named it the 38th best album of 2015, calling it a "searing commentary on our era's vague dread, computer-driven death from above and Orwellian political climate ... It was the year's most convincing howl from the abyss.". The ''
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'' wrote that "It's more than a little Spinal Tap, but if I was a teenage boy this is exactly the kind of thrilling madness that might turn me on to a moribund genre." The '' Evening Standard'' gave it four out of five and wrote: "Prog phobics might dismiss it as latter-day
Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...
with a dash of Noam Chomsky. But Bellamy's maturing songwriting has become more accessible, less prone to bluster. Drones is the fearsome sound of Muse at their monumental best."


Commercial performance

On the UK Albums Chart, ''Drones'' debuted at number one with sales of 72,863 copies, the third-highest opening of 2015 up to that point. It was Muse's fifth consecutive number-one album in the UK. It remained at number one in the second week, selling 24,445 copies (996 from streaming), bringing total sales to 97,308. It sold one million copies worldwide in 2015 and was the 19th best-selling album of the year. By 2016, it had sold approximately 170,000 copies in UK, 230,000 copies in the US, and 192,000 copies in France. ''Drones'' debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200 in the week ending 14 June, earning 84,200 album-equivalent units in its first week (including 79,400 copies on traditional sales, 26,000 on single sales and 3.3 million on single streams), surpassing estimations. The album replaced '' How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful'' by
Florence and the Machine Florence and the Machine (stylised as Florence + the Machine) are an English indie rock band that formed in London in 2007, consisting of lead vocalist Florence Welch, keyboardist Isabella Summers, guitarist Rob Ackroyd, harpist Tom Monger, and ...
in the previous week, the first time two British artists had debuted consecutively at number one on the US chart since 1956. Its traditional sales took ''Drones'' to number one of the Top Album Sales chart.


Track listing

Notes *"The Globalist" contains music based on "Nimrod" from the Enigma Variations, composed by
Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
. *"Drones" contains music based on the "Benedictus" from Missa Papae Marcelli, composed by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.


Personnel

All personnel adapted from album liner notes. Muse * Matt Bellamy – lead vocals, guitars, piano, keyboards, arrangements, production * Chris Wolstenholme – bass, backing vocals, production * Dominic Howard – drums, production Technical personnel * Robert John "Mutt" Lange – production, backing vocals ("Mercy" and "Aftermath") * Rich Costey – additional production, mixing *
Tommaso Colliva Tommaso is an Italian given name. It has also been used as a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name A * Tommaso Acquaviva d'Aragona (1600–1672), Roman Catholic prelate * Tommaso Aldrovandini (1653–1736), Italian painter of ...
– additional production, engineering *Adam Greenholtz – additional engineering *Eric Mosher – engineering assistance *Giuseppe Salvadori – engineering assistance *Jacopo Dorici – engineering assistance *John Prestage – engineering assistance *Tom Bailey – engineering assistance *Marlo Borgatta – mixing assistance *Giovanni Versari – mastering *Bob Ludwig – mastering ("Dead Inside") *Matt Colton – mastering (vinyl half speed) * Olle "Sven" Romo – additional programming *Durand Trench – dialogue recording ("
rill Sergeant In hillslope geomorphology, a rill is a shallow channel (no more than a few inches/decimeters deep) cut into soil by the erosive action of flowing surface water. Similar but smaller incised channels are known as microrills; larger incised ...
and "Psycho")
*Audrey Riley – string arrangements, conductor * Matt Mahurin
art direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...
,
illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...
, package design Additional musicians and performers *Will Leon Thompson – dialogue (Drill Sergeant) ("
rill Sergeant In hillslope geomorphology, a rill is a shallow channel (no more than a few inches/decimeters deep) cut into soil by the erosive action of flowing surface water. Similar but smaller incised channels are known as microrills; larger incised ...
and "Psycho")
*Michael Shiloah – dialogue (Recruit) ("
rill Sergeant In hillslope geomorphology, a rill is a shallow channel (no more than a few inches/decimeters deep) cut into soil by the erosive action of flowing surface water. Similar but smaller incised channels are known as microrills; larger incised ...
and "Psycho")
* John F. Kennedy – recorded dialogue of April 1961 Secret Societies speech (" FK) * Alessandro Cortini
modular synthesizer Modular synthesizers are synthesizers composed of separate modules for different functions. The modules can be connected together by the user to create a patch. The outputs from the modules may include audio signals, analog control voltages, o ...
s *Edoardo De Angelis – concertmaster, violin *Sarah Cross – violin *Freiherr von Dellingshausen – violin *Anna Minella – violin *Elia Mariani – violin *Gian Guerra – violin *Gian Lodigiani – violin *Gianmaria Bellisario – violin *Marco Corsini – violin *Michelle Torresetti – violin *Tommaso Belli – violin *Valerio D'Ercole – violin *Maria Lucchi – viola *Serena Palozzi – viola *Valentina Emilio Eria – viola *Andrea Scacchi – cello *Eliana Gintoli – cello *Francesco Sacco – cello *Martina Rudic – cello *Linati Omar –
contrabass Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...
*Massimo Clavenna – contrabass


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Release history


References

{{Authority control 2015 albums Albums produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange Albums recorded at The Warehouse Studio Grammy Award for Best Rock Album Muse (band) albums Warner Records albums