Queens Of The Stone Age - Era Vulgaris

The lost art of writing a good album

Someone (not me) should shake QOTSA’s massive frontman Josh Homme violently and shout “no prog! Bad Josh!” at him a few times. He’d probably dismember them, but at least the point would have been made: random riffs and leftover snippets do not a great album make.

After four albums, two of which (2000’s Rated R and 2002’s Songs For The Deaf) are stonecold classics, Queens (nowadays Homme, sometmies Mark Lanegan and an identikit rhythm section) have seemingly lost it. The writing was on the wall with 2005’s lukewarm Lullabies To Paralyze, dismissed by most as a temporary aberration following bassist Nick Oliveri’s sacking. It now seems that Homme’s unhinged counterpart provided much of the amped-up creative tension. Era Vulgaris has no such power: its first single, Sick Sick Sick, being some dull staccato riffage and little else. Elsewhere, Homme’s unnecessary twisty songwriting recalls Yes without the dignity. Misfit Love is too complex to be memorable and too shrill for real power. Sadly, Make It Wit Chu, a Lanegan-voiced Tom Waits-alike piano drone, is the standout.

Homme needs to get back to the big fat chorus-plus-riff approach he pioneered with Kyuss and early QOTSA. Either that, or ask Oliveri to return. If not, the reign of these Queens may come to a premature end.

2 stars 2 stars

Interscope | cat no tbc

Reviewed by Joel Mclver
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