| August 2002 - Magnet: Songs for the Deaf Review
|
|
by Corey duBrowa |
Saying "I have the new Queens of the Stone Age album" is like saying "I'm dating a girl who does cartoon voiceovers"--underneath it all, she's a person with real feelings, but on the surface she's a million different characters. The genius of the kings of Queens is that Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri drive their car more randomly about the parking lot with each successive release, but not in that "look ma, no hands" fashion typical of bands with limited attention spans and a need to show off the obscure nature of their record collections. When they're not creating underwater Berlin techno ("The Real Song for the Deaf"), the Queens are channeling the Stooges via Sabbath ("Millionaire") and giving Gary Glitter's anthemic stomp a much-needed facelift ("Do It Again"). All the while, the playing is imaginative, the ideas vibrant and shimmering and the band's considerable melodic gifts sabatoged by either willfully obtuse compositional tricks (the 6/4 math-rumble of "Sky is Falling") or outright punk brattiness ("Six Shooter," the kind of abusively loud, profanely angry number that guarantees mom and dad a trip to their teen's room to seek evidence of drugs and/or devil worship). I haven't even mentioned Mark Lanegan's codeine-drip vocal contributions or Dave Grohl's Bonham-for-the-'00s drumming yet, nor the impacted-bowel psych-metal heaviosity of "Song for the Deaf," a hydroponic hall of fame contender for the ages. This pair of Queens and their guest jokers will beat any other hand in the rock poker deck.
go back
|
|
|
