I think there is some knees too sharp action in this thread and I know audiophiles love to hate on stuff (nature of the culture), but my experience with all Muse albums has been the same. Initial impressions end up being meh, then a couple months in the shit gets stuck in your brain. I do agree this is not their best album, but really at least their shit is very listenable, unlike say Radiohead who have gotten so weird even they don't like hearing themselves anymore. The biggest complaint I can levy is that the poppy shit is very phoned in, even by Muse standards. I don't get the hate on the song Drones, though, unless you guys just hate classical music? ITs a direct homage to Barber's Agnus Dei who himself was paying homage to various church songs from the 1400s. Muse has been doing songs like that for a while, honestly.