Based on this thread, I gave the newish Muse album (the one with the mock cinema poster cover) a spin in my car yesterday. I can just about live with Bellamy's vocals, but the artificial drum sound and synth-drenched arrangements drive(s) me mad. Plus the strange mix of shoegazer introspective lightweight prog vocal melodies and 80ies dance synth pop doesn't really ignite with me. It's neither dumb enough, to feel good about, nor deep enough to be intriguing. In places it sounds like Laura Brannigan meets Porcupine Tree. Now I like both, but not a the same time!
Even I can barely listen to that album, and I'm supposedly a Muse fan. To me I think they had three pretty solid albums. That would be Absolution, Black Holes and Revelations, and The Resistance. That's 2003, 2009 and 2009. By 2009 there was a lot of disillusionment going on with the fan base. Many hated The Resistance. I had problems with it, too, but I thought it did have some good songs. By 2012 with The 2nd Law there were some terrible songs emerging such as "Madness" and "Panic Station." Also, Matt Bellamy even started turning over a few songs on that album to Chris Wolstenholme.
However, i really wouldn't judge Muse by the newest album. If even someone like me has serious problems with it, I wouldn't know what to expect from others.
Despite everything I've said here, there is the original fan base to consider. That was before I knew about Muse. From what I gather, there are still a number of people out there who were big fans of the Origin of Symmetry album (2001) and have barely been able to listen to anything Muse has done since then. Some of these people don't even like the Absolution album.
Correction:
Black Holes and Revelations came out in 2006.