Muse frontman Matt Bellamy said the band were involved in "era-blending" as they continue work on their next album. His comments came after the release of the new track "Thought Contagion," (watch the video above) and “Dig Down” before that, with the trio aiming to release more standalone songs before a full LP at the end of this year or in early 2019.

“We’re doing quite a lot of era-blending, I would say,” Bellamy told Beats 1 (via Music-News.com). “I’d say the early Romantic classical period … There’s a little whisper of that. There’s one track which is quite cool where we’ve blended a bit of Romantic classical piano with like ’80s synth, computer game music. You wouldn’t normally get that combo but it works! That’s called 'Algorithm,' that one."

The band's drummer Dominic Howard added: “So far it’s pretty mixed. It’s very different from the last album, that’s for sure. The last album was very rock, guitars and rifts – stuff like that – and this isn’t sounding like that at all. It’s definitely more experimental; there’s more weird synths and stuff that we’ve been messing around with.”

Bellamy revealed the inspiration for “Thought Contagion” came from being in French-speaking Montreal. “When you’re in a country with no English-speaking TV you find yourself watching news channels because that’s the only thing in English,” he said. “Usually it’s American news and if you spend a few hours watching American news, well, that’s were the first part of the song came from really. It’s kinda like some strange bubble where they’re all living up [Donald] Trump’s bum basically ... You start walking round worrying about things that you wouldn’t normally think about, and so the song came from that – how other people’s ideas can kinda take over your own if you’re not careful.”

Asked whether the new song was pessimistic he replied: “‘Dig Down’ was the last remnants of optimism and that’s all been spent now. I guess it’s a bit more of a fiery track. … There’s an array of strange anxieties; I guess when I’m singing things like, ‘You’ve been bitten by someone hungrier than you,’ sometimes I wonder if that is me or not. … That song puts into question if what I’m singing in the verses is real or not, so when it comes to the chorus I’m saying, ‘I don’t know if that’s actually real, it might be somebody else’s weirdness.’”

Muse released their seventh album Drones in 2015. The band have a handful of European dates booked over the coming months.

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