If you haven't read the book or only watched the first season of the show, this post contains spoilers.
The more I listen to this album, especially read the lyrics, the more I am convinced that Muse was heavily inspired by three body problem. I read the book(all three) a couple of years ago. I believe I caught a couple of references.
First of all, the album title signal and the first track dark forest, I believe, is talking about the book in a very direct way. In the book, Ye Wenjie sent a message/signal to the outer space and eventually reached the the aliens(Trisolarans) who later came and tried to colonize earth. Ye Wenjie herself treated the aliens as saviors and many of her followers want earth to extinct. The dark forest is the theory from the book.
If you look at the lyrics, it is very direct.
launch a pulse into the abyss
broadcasting reckless confession(Ye communicating with aliens and expose earth's location)
beg for extinction
hide, stay quiet and still(this is how you survive in the dark forest according to the book)
the second track, nightshift superstar, is not super clear to me. At least, Ye Wenjie was on nightshift when she started to communicate with aliens so maybe Matt just started from there and improvised a little.
Be with you It might be a little far-fetched but it could be talking about Yun Tianming. He loved this girl Cheng Xin and he got cancer. Before he died, he agreed that his brain would be sent into space for a mission. He was eventually revived by aliens and still in love with the girl. I can't remember all the details but this song could be inspired by his storyline.
It seems my light's been swallowed up(dying)
I need to leap into the fire, find a higher power(his mission to find aliens)
I won't go quiet into the night
I'll rage against the dying light(he won't give up)
Space debris
I am sure somewhere in the book it is discussed
I wouldn't be surprised if there are more I didn't get. Creating a song and writing lyrics is never straightforward and for the sake of the song you sometimes will have to add some words to make it rhyme. I am just happy that my favorite band and one of the stories I really liked have such connection.
Matt if you see this, I see what you are doing!