Tiirik, Anneli (2016), “Liner notes”, Drones by Muse
(Recorded in The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, released on 5th of June 2015)
Muse Stripped: Going Back to the Basics of Human Emotions and Sound After the 2nd Law
Between October 2011 and August 2012, Muse recorded and self-produced their sixth studio album (Muse, 2012), which featured various styles (Art rock[1], progressive rock[2], electronica[3]) and influences including Queen, David Bowie and Skrillex (Mango, 2013). Bellamy[4] himself described this experimental album as a “christian gangsta rap jazz odyssey, with ambient rebellious dubstep and face-melting metal flamenco cowboy psychedelia” on his Twitter account. He also reported feeling as though the band had drawn a line under a certain era of their career with the 2nd Law and promised that the next album would radically differ from this one.
The title 2nd Law could be considered a referral to the Second Law of Robotics[5] (Asimov, 1950), which excludes artificial intelligence from being used as a military weapon. Furthermore, this principle can be used as a basis for criticizing the government war tactics, making it a direct bridge between this and their following album Drones.
During the summer of 2014, Bellamy worked on a musical concept that “really strips away the additional things that we’ve experimented with on the last two albums.” (Greene, 2013). He electronically wrote a collection of new songs in his two identically customized private writing rooms equipped with a Pro Tools HD rig (one in London and another in his Los Angeles residence). With the band’s main goal being reconnecting with their rock roots and going back to basics, these songs marked the return of a simpler guitar-bass-drums based sound of their earlier music (NRJ, 2015).
According to Muse, the main reason for this change in direction was feeling like the electronic vibe in their music was becoming too dominant. As stated by Wolstenholme[6], “some of the music on the 2nd Law was somewhat of a bore to play live. Sometimes, making things simpler makes them more powerful.” (D’Auria, 2015). Colliva[7], however, saw this decision in a contradictory light: “the songs had become more and more difficult to play live, and I think the guys liked the idea of doing something more stripped–down that was easier to play live” (Tingen, 2015).
All in all, returning to use less sophisticated equipment and a more traditional rock music format can be perceived as a step towards simplicity, but “this can often be deceptive, since the textual complexity and the instrumental arrangements are far more complex than they appear and require careful writing, arranging and producing.” (Covach and Boome, 1997, 5).
Perhaps the deceptiveness of simplicity regarding this musical material is also why Muse decided to collaborate with the famous producer Mutt[8], with whom they began to
record these songs on October 2014. The first studio session ended on 19th of October, with the band calling it “emotional” (Nguyen, 2014) and the last one on 1st of April 2015.
Generally speaking, Drones (Muse 2015) is a concept album that follows an emotional storyline: the lead character loses hope and battles with internal dark forces until eventually overcoming his enemies and fears. Bellamy described Drones as “a modern metaphor for what it is to lose empathy” (Haynes, 2015) and admitted to reading a lot of material about drones, artificial intelligence and Ebola virus prior to creating the concept behind their latest album.
On one hand, this album is about the dehumanization of modern warfare and includes themes of World War III, examines the importance and equality of all living beings as well as discusses the underestimated influence of feelings on human behaviors and attitudes.
On the other hand, Bellamy has admitted that Drones is about reconnecting with feeling alone and that the first single of the album, “Dead Inside”(Muse, 2015), talks about a relationship ending and a person feeling “dead inside” (Trendell, 2015), which is another term for clinical depression. In December 2014, Bellamy and Kate Hudson, who had been together since 2010, broke off their engagement, so it could be argued that this album is his personal journey of self-discovery, where drones symbolize the numbness resulting in his lost belief in love.
Parallels could be drawn with the 2nd Law album as well: firstly, Bellamy has admitted that some singles on that album were about his relationship, for example: “Madness” was written after a fight with Hudson and “Follow me” talks about keeping a lover safe (Muse 2012). Secondly, both albums are marketed as critique of government policies (2nd Law calls global warning a bureaucratic conspiracy). Drones arguably has a heavier content[9].
Despite some similarities in the underlying themes and classical influences[10], these two albums differ noticeably in their song structure and production methods as well as the style and artwork (The 2nd Law cover was imprinted by Muse[11], whereas Drones cover was created by Mahurin[12]). Drones is strongly influenced by the 80’s artists, such as like Depeche Mode and Prince (Deezer, 2015). The recording process is more trio-based and the band’s priority is performing rather than producing: “We (producers) set them up in the main live room as a trio, facing each other in a shape that mimics how they set up on stage.” (Tingen, 2015).
In Bellamy’s experience, the creation process always starts with a melody that is followed by emotions stirred by the music, making lyrics the last, and perhaps the least crafted, ingredient. It could therefore be assumed that the melody is the true baseline for their musical ideas and concepts. That might be why critics, whose reviews have ranged from mixed to positive, have generally praised the instrumentation, but criticized the lyrics. Some have called this album a “relationship horror”, others have concluded that the conspiracy theorist political references are tactless (Keens, 2015) or just a strategic marketing plan (Cohen, 2015).
Overall, Drones won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, making it more appraised by the public than the 2nd Law[13], which, despite receiving a slightly more positive feedback from the critics, only received a Grammy nomination.
References:
Asimov, I. (1950) I, Robot. Robot Series, 1(December)253.
Cohen, I. (2015) Muse Drones [blog]. 9 June. Available from http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20520-drones/ [accessed 14 December 2016].
Covach, J. and Boome, G. M. (1997) Progressive rock “Close to the Edge” and the boundaries of style. In: J. Covach and G.M. Boome (eds.) Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis. New York, USA: Oxford University Press, 5.
D’Auria, J. (2015) Chris Wolsternholme and Muse return to their hard rock roots [blog]. 15 September. Available from http://www.bassplayer.com/artists/1171/chris-wolstenholme-and-muse-return-to-their-hard-rock-roots/54021 [accessed 14 December 2016].
Deezer (2015) Close up interview – Muse. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwpTdh4qtbA&list=PLI7VfbCY_SXJ8dZLOOPCeMy1lC8UEr0iV&index=1 [accessed 14 December 2016].
Greene, A. (2013) Muse Singer Matt Bellamy: Live DVD Completes an ‘Upside-Down Journey’. Rolling Stone, 2 December. Available from http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/muse-singer-matt-bellamy-live-dvd-completes-an-upside-down-journey-20131202 [accessed 14 December 2016].
Haynes, G. (2015) Muse interview: on modern warfare, the conspiracies that drive new album ‘Drones’ and Matt Bellamy’s night at the white house. NME Music, 20 May. Available from http://www.nme.com/features/muse-interview-on-modern-warfare-the-conspiracies-that-drive-new-album-drones-and-matt-bellamys-nigh-756715 [accessed 14 December 2016].
Keens, O. (2015) Muse – “Drones” album review. Time Out, 5 June. Available from http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/hear-muses-relationship-horror-song-dead-inside-20150323 [accessed 14 December 2016].
Mango (2013) Muse’s biggest musical influences [blog]. 16 October. Available from http://main.nimrodstreet.com/articles/muses-biggest-musical-influences [accessed 14 December 2016].
Muse (2012) 2nd Law [download]. London: Warner Bros. Records and Helium -3. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej8rdi-cwdw&list=PL54431cQSETCL_aiFfRzZXab03f3Y8jk7 [accessed 14 December 2016].
Muse (2015) Drones [download]. Vancouver: Warner Bros. Records and Helium-3. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5sJhSNUkwQ&list=PLJNbijG2M7Ow6gBCzHsWcDquERC15pVYK [accessed 14 December 2016].
Muse (2015) Dead inside [download]. 4 min. 31 second. Drones. Vancouver: Warner Bros. Records and Helium-3. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5sJhSNUkwQ [accessed 15 December 2016].
Muse (2012) Follow me [download] 3 minutes 51 seconds. 2nd Law. London: Warner Bros. Records and Helium-3. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qiu3rvYveSg [accessed 15 December 2016].
Muse (2012) Madness [download] 5 minutes 19 seconds. 2nd Law. 2nd Law. London: Warner Bros. Records and Helium-3. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek0SgwWmF9w&list=PLEU9nxExh9ueSEz1bmkxf3f0L3IYOTJNv [accessed 15 December 2016].
Nguyen, D. (2014) Muse complete ’emotional’ first session for new album. NME Music, 19 October. Available from http://www.nme.com/news/muse/80492 [accessed 14 December 2016].
NRJ (2015) Muse – Matt and Dom Interview about Drones. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI05LsEV65w&list=PLI7VfbCY_SXJ8dZLOOPCeMy1lC8UEr0iV&index=2 [accessed 14 December 2016].
Trendell, A. (2015) Matt Bellamy opens up about Kate Hudson + “feeling alone” [blog]. 20 May. Available from http://www.gigwise.com/news/100669/matt-bellamy-kate-hudson-split-&-loneliness-on-muse-drones—interview [accessed 14 December 2016].
Tingen, P. (2015) Inside track: Muse’s drones. Secrets of the mix engineers: Tommasco Colliva & Rich Costey. Sound on Sound, 1 October 2015. Available from http://www.soundonsound.com/people/inside-track-muses-drones [accessed 14 December 2016].
[1] Art rock generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements.
[2] Progressive rock features instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz, folk or classical music and lyrics that are more poetic than in classic rock.
[3] Electronic music employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production.
[4] Matt Bellamy is the singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.
[5] The Second Law states that a robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except injure a human being or through inaction, allow a human to come to harm.
[6] Christopher Tony Wolstenholme is the bassist and backing vocalist.
[7] Tommasco Colliva has been Muse’s right-hand man and engineer for over 10 years.
[8] Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange achieved living legend status through his work on classic albums by Def Leppard, AC/DC, Foreigner, Bryan Adams, Shania Twain and others.
[9] Repeatedly mentioned words in Drones: ”fucking” (11x), “ass” (7x), “baby” (7x), “you” (140x), “drones” (19x).
[10] Muse has mentioned a wide range of classical influences : Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Hans Zimmer, Frédéric Chopin, Pyotr Tchaikosky, Philip Glass, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Sergei Rahmaninov.
[11] Helium 3 is a subdivisional record label of Warner Music Group that was formed by Muse in 2006..
[12] Matt Mahurin has co-worked with Metallica, Tracy Chapman, U2, R.E.M, Alice In Chains and many others.
[13] Metacritic[13] gave 2nd Law a 70/100 score, whereas Drones was scored 63/100.