Drones (Muse album)
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
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]
Background[edit]
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]
Recording[edit]
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]
Promotion and release[edit]
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]
Commercial performance[edit]
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]
Notes