Muse wins Grammy for dystopian rock album

Muse, the English rockers who have built a loyal following for their operatic touches, on Monday won the Grammy for Best Rock Album with the dystopian political statement "Drones."

The futuristic concept album is the second Grammy for the veterans of the British alternative scene, who won Best Rock Album at the 2011 ceremony for "The Resistance."

Muse, who did not come to the ceremony, beat out competitors who included prominent alternative rockers Death Cab for Cutie, who were in competition for their first Grammy, and the rising English star James Bay.

"Drones" returns to the heavier rock sound of early Muse, with fewer of the electronic touches of their more recent work.

But the album is lyrically ambitious, taking the growing use of drone warfare as a starting point to describe an Orwellian world of government mind control.

The album climaxes with the classically inspired Matt Bellamy singing, "Are you dead inside? Now they can kill from the safety of your home with drones."

The album, tracing the history that led to covert drone warfare, includes a recording of president John F. Kennedy speaking on the need to balance secrecy and public information following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

Muse's experimentalism has won a dedicated audience and invited comparisons to progressive rock legends Pink Floyd of "The Wall" fame.

But detractors say that Muse is both musically and lyrically heavy-handed and leaves little room for artistic nuance.

Muse, which has more commercial success in its native Britain, reached number one on the US album chart for the first time with "Drones." The album also topped the charts in a number of other countries including Japan, where the band has a strong fan base, and France.