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Jul 21, 2015 Web Exclusive By Dan Lucas

I’ve only got 150 words/bullets and there are a lot of problems with this album/fish in this barrel. Let’s start with that artwork: look at it. Stare at it for 53 minutes. Awful as it is, you’ll have a more enjoyable 53 minutes doing that than you will listening to the album itself.

“Psycho”—a cheesy “Personal Jesus” knock-off—would be the album highlight if not for the spoken word sections: “Are you a psycho killer?! Scream it!” On a concept album about drone warfare, lyrics so on the nose would be bad enough. Matt Bellamy, though ambitious as ever in the depths he seeks to plumb, strikes a bizarre parallel between this and the breakdown of his relationship with Kate Hudson. If it wasn’t so weirdly fucking awful, it might be offensive.

“Reapers” (track five of 12) features the classic Bellamy guitar: playing a scale and then dicking around a Kaoss pad to make some prog bullshit. No one would blame you for switching off here. Muse have always been ridiculous and overblown, but at least they used to be a ton of fun. Can anyone remember how long ago that was? (www.muse.mu)

Author rating: 2/10