I became a fan during the Absolution era, so I followed the hype around BHaR, The Resistance and T2L.

BHaR was kinda hyped, but really Muse were still kinda small so not many people talking. I remember the first tease being Supermassive Black Hole and that was when everyone lost its shit. Talking about how it sounded like a Britney Spears song and that they'd lost the plot over electronic music. Thinking about that now, after Madness, really puts everything in perspective. However, not many teases, the album came out in terrible quality a few weeks earlier than the release date, so not very secretive.

BHaR was a big hit. I'd say the number of fans waiting for the new LP was doubled. As already mentioned, the hype was over the top, and Muse were very careful with keeping it all very secret. The treasure hunt was so fun to follow, people from literally all over the world came together to find hints to unlock Eurasia. Very fascinating. Then they did the most terrible thing which was releasing, for each new song, a 10 second tease. Absolutely terrible because you spoiled yourself and we collectively spent a week or more judging the song from 10seconds snippets and arguing telling each other not to judge the song by said snippet.

T2L had its share of hype, but nothing comparable to The Resistance. We got Survival and Madness released as early singles, so they held us over pretty well.

Drones is virtually getting zero hype, compared to previous situations, even compared to T2L. Excluding super fans, casual fans don't even know they're recording an album. The vine and instagrams get old very quick if you don't get to listen to the damn song in the near future and many don't follow them.

You know what I'm getting? I think this is the most anticipated album by Muse themselves. I've never seen them as excited for a release. This gives me hope, I trust their judgement.