I can't lie I got really into Muse but this girl I was talking to said she didn't like it so I just never bought the album, listened to all the others again and again but never this one. Then my dad bought it. The first listen I felt so sad because I did try to like it but it felt so disappointing and it wasn't even my money that paid for it.
The title track I just don't like at all the background vocals annoy me and it's not mixed well enough to make out the vocals properly, instrumentally it's ok to bad. Compliance starts off bad, gets okay but I just don't like the name of the track being dropped, it's just like if they stole the soul out of a track from Drones but made it worse and the repeating vocals do not help it at allllll although the instrumental bit halfway through is kind of cool I guess. Liberation has the same thing but it has the soul from a 2nd Law track, I don't think it's as bad it's just eh. Won't Stand Down doesn't hit for me, I just don't like it, I remember searching for Muse tracks on Beatsaber and someone made a map for this track and I was like "wow this sucks" from the little snippit of the chorus, the guitar is kind of sick though like that's the only bit I enjoyed. Ghosts is one of those tracks I categorise as 'headache music' like it's that vibe of song that I associate with being in the car on the way back from going out to the shops with family and something like this is on and just gives me a headache. I think it does have potential though like I can see myself enjoying a different version of this but just not this :/
You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween I don't know how to feel about because I don't hate it but that makes it even more weird because I don't dislike it but also what is it doing in this album??? It makes no sense to exist in it because it just feels so forced like you know when you get to A Sky Full Of Stars in Ghost Stories by Coldplay it's that one track that sticks out like a sore thumb because it's that one single. But like why a seasonal song?? This should have just been a single or on a small EP like we get it you want a Halloween song because it's so hard to get a Christmas cashcow but why put it in the middle of an album.
Kill or Be Killed makes me think of the Payday 2 soundtrack but like I don't know, it doesn't really grip me especially as it comes after a Halloween song??? I think if you just put this straight in the middle of Drones I would be a bigger fan but it's one of those tracks I don't think can really exist outside of an album. Verona I think is kind of cool especially instrumentally but idk
The last two tracks I really dislike I remember coming back from the shop with my dad and he was at the end of the album and these two were left and I felt so incredibly embarrassed, I didn't put it on, I didn't buy the album and I didn't suggest getting it however I felt the type of shame that those Japanese public transit officials feel when the trains are 1 min late. FUCK THIS SHIT TRACK EUPHORIA I HATE IT SO MUCH FUCK YOU FUCK YOU SHITTY TRACK GENUINE DISGUST AT THIS HORRIBLE ANIME OPENING SOUNDING CHORUS. I don't even know what to say about We Are Fucking Fucked, some of it is cool?? But it is so embarrassing to listen to.
Lyrically this album (mostly) fucking SUCKSSSS ITS SO BAD IT IS FUCKING FUCKED, I think it would have been better if it was only the instrumentals but it makes me wail at the end as to how they have somehow created a bad Muse album. I am just so disappointed. I don't think I will be going out of my way to listen to this again unless something crazy in my life happens.