Drones | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 5 June 2015 | |||
Recorded | October 2014 – April 2015 | |||
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Length | 52:44 | |||
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Muse chronology | ||||
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Muse studio album chronology | ||||
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Singles from Drones | ||||
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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 Helium-3 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 following a soldier's abandonment,indoctrination as a "human drone",and eventual defection. It also comments on the Obama administration'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,it won the award for Best Rock Album. The album was listed on 41 in the NME albums of the year 2015. [1] Diffuser.fm named it the 42nd best of the year. [2] Rolling Stone named it the 39th best of the year. [3]
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. [4] [5] A concert film of the tour,entitled Muse:Drones World Tour ,was released in cinemas in July 2018. [6]
On their previous albums The Resistance (2009) and The 2nd Law (2012),Muse incorporated orchestral and electronic music. [7] [8] In December 2013,they released the live album and video Live at Rome Olympic Stadium ;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." [7]
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." [7] 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." [9]
In October 2014,Muse entered the Warehouse Studio in Vancouver. [10] [11] [12] 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. [9] Tommaso Colliva and Rich Costey served as additional producers. [10] After having used several different bass guitars and effect pedals for The 2nd Law,Wolstenholme used only one bass guitar and a small number of pedals,hoping to find a cohesive sound. [9]
The first recording session ended on 19 October,with the band calling it "emotional". [13] Muse re-entered the studio in November 2014. [14] On 1 April 2015,drummer Dominic Howard and mixer Rich Costey indicated on their Instagram accounts that they had finished mixing the album. [15] [16] The result was a simpler,more consistent rock sound with less elaborate production and genre experimentation. [9] [17] [18]
Drones has been described as featuring alternative rock, [19] hard rock, [20] progressive rock, [21] and progressive metal. [22] It is a concept album about the dehumanisation of modern warfare. [23] The story begins with "Dead Inside",where the protagonist loses hope and becomes vulnerable to the dark forces of "Psycho". He eventually defects,revolts and overcomes his enemies. [24]
Answering fan questions on Twitter in September 2014,Bellamy said the album's themes include deep ecology,the empathy gap,and World War III. [25] In March 2015,he said:
To me, drones are metaphorical psychopaths which enable psychopathic behaviour with no recourse. The world is run by drones utilising drones to turn us all into drones. This album explores the journey of a human, from their abandonment and loss of hope, to their indoctrination by the system to be a human drone, to their eventual defection from their oppressors. [26]
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." [27]
On 26 January 2015, Muse revealed the album title in an Instagram video featuring a mixing desk with audio samples and a screen stating "Artist – Muse, Album – Drones." [28] They also began using the hashtag "#MuseDrones" on Twitter and Instagram. [29] On 6 February, American artist Matt Mahurin announced he had created artwork for the album. [30] [31] On 8 March, the band shared a snippet of the new song "Psycho" and mentioned "mixing with a very tight deadline". [32]
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. [33] Critics have described "Psycho" as a hard rock [34] and glam rock [35] song with elements of nu metal. [36]
On 23 March, "Dead Inside" was released as the album's lead single with a lyric video on Muse's YouTube channel. [37] [38] On 18 May, Muse released a lyric video for "Mercy" and released the song on Spotify. [39] On 29 May, a lyric video for "Reapers" was released on YouTube, [40] followed by "The Handler" on 2 June [41] and "[JFK]" with "Defector" on 3 June. [42]
In an album review for The Observer , Kitty Empire commented that the pacy song "Reapers" "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." [43]
Drones was released on 5 June 2015 in Europe and 8 June in the United Kingdom [44] under Warner Bros. Records and Helium-3. On 3 November, Muse released "Revolt" as the third single from the album along with a music video on iTunes. [45] 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 Record Store Day. [46]
From 15 to 24 March 2015, the band played the Psycho Tour, six concerts in small venues in the UK. [26] 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. 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". [47]
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.[ citation needed ] The band was supported by Marmozets on the tour. Part of the tour also took place outside the UK in the United States. [47] [26]
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. [48] During the first leg of the tour, the band had their debut performance at Download Festival, which they also headlined. [49] 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. [50]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 5.7/10 [51] |
Metacritic | 63/100 [52] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [23] |
The Daily Telegraph | [53] |
Entertainment Weekly | C [54] |
The Guardian | [55] |
Los Angeles Times | [56] |
NME | 7/10 [57] |
Pitchfork | 4.5/10 [58] |
Q | [59] |
Rolling Stone | [22] |
Spin | 5/10 [21] |
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." [52] Q wrote that despite Muse's stated goal of returning to their roots, "Drones is anything but back-to-basics garage rock... befitting of its proggy conceptual narrative about state mind control, it's an album of rambling interests." [59] 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." [22] 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 [Bellamy's] adventurous intrigue." [57]
AllMusic wrote that "it's hard to avoid [Muse's] conclusion that war is bad, but this inclination to write everything in bold, italicized capital letters is an asset when it comes to music." [23] 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." [60] 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." [58] Oliver Keens of Time Out London called the album's handling of the drones 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." [61] 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." [62]
The Daily Telegraph 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." [63] The Evening Standard gave it four out of five and wrote: "Prog phobics might dismiss it as latter-day Pink Floyd 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." [64]
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. [65] It remained at number one in the second week, selling 24,445 copies (996 from streaming), bringing total sales to 97,308. [66] [67] It sold one million copies worldwide in 2015 and was the 19th best-selling album of the year. [68] By 2016, it had sold approximately 170,000 copies in UK, 230,000 copies in the US, and 192,000 copies in France. [69]
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. [70] The album replaced How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful by Florence and the Machine 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. [71]
All lyrics are written by Matt Bellamy; all music is composed by Bellamy, except where noted [10]
No. | Title | Music | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Dead Inside" | 4:22 | |
2. | "[Drill Sergeant]" | 0:21 | |
3. | "Psycho" | 5:16 | |
4. | "Mercy" | 3:51 | |
5. | "Reapers" | 5:59 | |
6. | "The Handler" | 4:33 | |
7. | "[JFK]" | 0:54 | |
8. | "Defector" | 4:33 | |
9. | "Revolt" | 4:05 | |
10. | "Aftermath" | 5:47 | |
11. | "The Globalist" |
| 10:07 |
12. | "Drones" |
| 2:49 |
Total length: | 52:40 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Psycho" (Live at Glasgow Barrowlands) | 5:44 |
2. | "Dead Inside" (Live at Brighton Dome) | 4:38 |
3. | "The Handler" (Soundcheck, Exeter Great Hall) | 4:45 |
4. | "Reapers" (Live at Exeter Great Hall) | 6:18 |
5. | "Bonus Studio Footage – The Globalist / Defector" | 10:00 |
Total length: | 32:57 |
Notes
All personnel adapted from album liner notes. [10]
Muse
Technical personnel
| Additional musicians and performers
|
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [124] | Gold | 35,000^ |
Austria (IFPI Austria) [125] | Gold | 7,500* |
Canada (Music Canada) [126] | Platinum | 80,000^ |
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) [127] | Gold | 10,000‡ |
France (SNEP) [128] | 2× Platinum | 200,000* |
Italy (FIMI) [129] | Platinum | 50,000‡ |
Mexico (AMPROFON) [130] | Gold | 30,000^ |
Netherlands (NVPI) [131] | Gold | 20,000^ |
Russia (NFPF) [132] | Platinum | 10,000* |
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland) [133] | Platinum | 20,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [134] | Gold | 100,000* |
Summaries | ||
Worldwide | — | 1,100,000 [135] |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Format | Label |
---|---|---|---|
Australia [136] | 5 June 2015 |
| Warner Bros. |
Austria [137] | |||
Finland [138] | |||
Germany [139] | |||
Ireland [140] | |||
Netherlands [141] | |||
New Zealand [142] | |||
Switzerland [143] | |||
United Kingdom [44] | 8 June 2015 | ||
France [144] | |||
Poland [145] | |||
Canada [146] | 9 June 2015 | ||
Italy [147] | |||
Spain [148] | |||
United States [149] | |||
Japan [150] | 10 June 2015 | ||
Norway [151] | |||
Sweden [152] |
Muse are an English rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme, and Dominic Howard.
Absolution is the third studio album by English rock band Muse, released on 22 September 2003 through Taste Media. It was produced by Muse and Rich Costey, with additional production by John Cornfield and Paul Reeve.
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The discography of the English rock band Muse includes nine studio albums, two live albums, one compilation album, one box set, five EPs, 44 singles, two video albums and 61 music videos.
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The Resistance is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Muse, released on 11 September 2009 through Warner Bros. Records and Muse's Helium-3 imprint. It was self-produced and recorded from September 2008 to May 2009 at Studio Bellini in Lake Como, Italy. It mixes rock with orchestral and electronic music, with lyrics influenced by politics and more oppressive subjects. It includes a three-part, 13-minute long symphony piece, "Exogenesis".
The 2nd Law is the sixth studio album by English rock band Muse, first released on 28 September 2012 through Warner Bros. Records and the band's own Helium-3 imprint. Recording of the album took place in studios between London and Los Angeles County, beginning in October 2011 and ending in August 2012. The 2nd Law was Muse's second album to be solely self-produced, following The Resistance (2009), and features a plethora of additional musicians that performed brass, strings, and choir vocals.
"Madness" is a song by the English rock band Muse. It is the second track and second single from Muse's sixth studio album, The 2nd Law (2012), released as a download on 20 August 2012. It was written by singer and guitarist Matthew Bellamy and produced by the band. The music video premiered on 5 September 2012.
"Follow Me" is a song by the English rock band Muse, written by Matthew Bellamy for their sixth studio album, The 2nd Law. It appears as the sixth track on the album. The song was released as the third single from The 2nd Law on 7 December 2012, just over two months after the album was released.
"Psycho" is a song by the English rock band Muse from their seventh studio album Drones, released on 12 March 2015 as a promotional single and the first from the album. It was later featured as the B-side to the official lead single later that month, "Dead Inside".
Beneath the Skin is the second studio album by Icelandic indie folk band Of Monsters and Men; it was released on 8 June 2015 in Iceland, and a day later in the rest of the world. The album artwork and design was created by artistic director Leif Podhajsky. It debuted at number three on US Billboard 200, and sold 61,000 copies in its first week, becoming the band's highest-charting album in the country.
"Dead Inside" is a song by English rock band Muse. The opening track on their seventh album, Drones, it was released as the album's lead single and second overall on 23 March 2015. On the same day, a lyric video for the song was released on the band's YouTube channel, while the single premiered on BBC Radio 1.
"Mercy" is a song by English rock band Muse from their seventh album, Drones. It was released as the second single from the album on 18 May 2015.
"Reapers" is a song by English rock band Muse. It was released as the second promotional single from the band's seventh studio album Drones, and was given a 7" single release, as part of Record Store Day 2016, on 16 April 2016 as the fifth and final single from Drones. It peaked at number 75 on the French Singles Chart, 71 on the Swiss Hitparade singles chart, 37 on Billboard's Hot Rock Songs, and became Muse's highest-charting single at the time on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Songs at number 2; it has since been surpassed on the latter chart by "Won't Stand Down," which reached number 1 in May 2022.
Nothing but Thieves are an English rock band, formed in 2012 in Southend-on-Sea, Essex consisting of lead vocalist and guitarist Conor Mason, guitarist Joe Langridge-Brown, guitarist and keyboardist Dominic Craik, bassist Philip Blake, and drummer James Price. In 2014, they signed to RCA Records and a year later in October 2015, they released their self-titled debut album. Their second album, Broken Machine was released in September 2017, receiving wide acclaim in addition to peaking at No. 2 in the UK Album Charts. They released an EP titled What Did You Think When You Made Me This Way? in October 2018, followed by their third studio album, Moral Panic, in October 2020. This was followed in July 2021 by the album's "second part" with the EP entitled Moral Panic II. In June 2023, they released their fourth studio album, Dead Club City, which became their first UK No. 1 album.
The Drones World Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the English rock band Muse. Staged in support of the band's 2015 album Drones, the tour visited arenas and festivals throughout 2015 and is the tenth concert tour the band has carried out. It began on 23 May 2015 in Norwich, England at the BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend. The Drones World Tour sold over 1.2 million tickets and grossed $23M from 34 shows in 2015, plus $65.5M from 64 shows in 2016.
"Something Human" is a song by English rock band Muse. It was released as the third single from the band's eighth studio album, Simulation Theory. Matt Bellamy described the track as "intimate" and that it marked a departure from the "dark and moody" Drones. The track was released on 19 July 2018, following their previous single "Thought Contagion", which was released February of that year.
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