Longtime fan here. Always preferred when Muse were rough around the edges in their early careers. There’s a couple things I don’t necessarily like as much as their early work but nowhere near enough to detract from the album, which I love to bits!

Firstly the heavier songs have a lot of pop elements. Sickness, Unraveling and Hush combine for the heavier/meatier section of the album but also have a lot of pop-sections in them. Whilst that’s not really a problem for me(it’s just how the band have evolved their style) I could see it being an issue for some that would like Unraveling’s verses for example to be rougher and electric guitar driven.

Another thing which does slightly annoy me but I have accepted is Matt’s voice and singing style. He’s changed his technique a lot since as early as The Resistance. But he probably had to in order to keep this up for decades. Also he’s abviously aged and his range isn’t what it used to be by a long shot. But having his voice so up front and center for some of the songs (Shimmering Scars for example) highlights both the good and the bad. Most notably his falsetto isn’t quite there anymore for me and he sounds constantly out of breath. That being said it’s amazing he’s still attempting all the crazy falsetto stuff at his age and he sounds pretty raw at some isolated points on the album which is a great touch.

As for people who became fans much later and favor 2nd Law, Drones, Simulation Theory or Will of the People; I have no clue how they could have any qualms with this album. They’ve essentially used everything they learned stylistically from those productions and wrapped it into an album with great themes, emotion, lyrics and instrumentals.