Review:

on 2011-07-16 CharlesMartel Said:

I have managed to live my life so far without the Queens of the Stone Age. Up until now, I did not think I had missed anything. Having listened to "Songs for the Deaf", generally regarded by many as their finest album, I am now absolutely sure I have not missed a thing. In truth, this much lauded album made so little an impression upon me that I would be hard put to quantify the impact it had in terms of not having heard compared with having heard it. I have made this point before, but it is worth making it again. There is some music which is so quintessentially American that it has no relevance whatsoever to my life to the extent that it is like the proverbial ship in the night  it passes me by without a recognition that it has ever been there.

I presume that the label stoner rock is applied to rock music made (or listened to) by people who are stoned. Hmm. Is that relevant? Would I have to be stoned to enjoy this? Surely, if it cannot stand up on its own merit there is something wrong with it. But that is surely not what you would expect from this quasi-supergroup. (I have no hesitation in applying that label to a band which comprises two former members of Kyuss, a former Screaming Tree and Dave Grohl). And yet it leaves me cold, in the sense of dispassionate rather than any other sense.

Although I cannot recall it having been done before to the same degree, the mock radio station signature lines which feature as break-up points between so many of the tracks is, at the same time, distinctive and cliched. Plus its objective is an easy target-the lack of anything decent on the radio (as the links involving Radio KLON and Radio KRDL - spoiling music for everyone - typify). Now I harbour as intense a hatred for mainstream commercial radio as anyone, but if that is meant to provide a thematic link between the tracks, it fails because the tracks are stylistically drawn from many different sources. This makes listening to the album something of a challenge because it is difficult to pin down.

However, the album opens with an intent. The opening track is one of those tracks which were clearly intended to be played with the amplifier knob turned up to eleven in the vein of Spinal Tap. Thereafter the band embark on a journey across rock territory which seems to take them nowhere in particular. The band members all get the chance to display their virtuosity and demonstrate they have the perfect capability to undertake the journey, but the songs do not seem to provide the framework upon which they can hang their undoubted talents to any great purpose. The shared vocals bear some of the responsibility for this with Lanegan's I've-smoked-too-much-tobacco-and-drunk-too-much-whiskey baritone contrasting with Homme's occasional falsetto.

But above all, I am left with a feeling of disappointment, not just at this album, but by extension at a whole genre of US music which seems stuck in a rut and unable to break free from the constraints of the standard rock format. The UK issue has additional tracks of which only one seems to add anything. The live version of "The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret" off their first album is a straightforward rocker which brings nothing to the table. "Mosquito Song" features the eponymous leader of Ween and sounds more like Ween song than anything else, a sprawling, difficult to pin down mix of strings, horns, guitars and drums. It takes the last song to add anything truly original - "Everybody's Gonna Be Happy" sounds like a mixture of 60's psychedelic and garage given a remix by modern production techniques and is totally out of character with the rest of the album. It is a change, yes, but hardly an outstanding one and is not enough to save this album from the mediocrity of its own making.
Rating: 5/10

Review:

on 2007-07-28 SolitaryMan Said:

It is sometimes difficult for yours truly to decide between this and "Rated R" when considering QOTSA's highest watermark in their discography. They really stepped up to the plate here, working from the promise of previous work and delivering in spades. The addition of Grohl behind the kit, for however limited a time, was probably the wisest move; he stretches his chops across this album in a way he was rarely able to do with Nirvana. He drives the songs and adds a layer of heaviness to the proceedings, and the appropriately-matched guitar tone and quick-as-nails pacing lasts most of the album. But fear not; they often slow to enjoy the scenery, and these moments really go lengths to honor Homme's past work with Kyuss; staying true to the stoner-rock, as it is. Too many standout tracks to list (90% killer to 10% filler), and too many "wow"-worthy highlights leave this review a little shorter than usual; this is just a great hard rock album, front to back.
Rating: 9/10