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Album Reviews
Album review: Queens Of The Stone Age – Queens Of The Stone Age (Re-Issue) (Domino/Rekords Rekords)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 7 March 2011
Hands up, who doesn’t like Queens Of The Stone Age? Yeah. I didn’t think there would be anyone, either. And if there are the odd one or two, educate yourselves and buy this album, would you? In its original format, it’s not had very much luck and has been out of print for years, but with this re-release now out, you really have no excuse.
Back in 1997, in a far away land known to you and me as California, Queens Of The Stone Age were born, an accumulation of efforts by Josh Homme and Alfredo Hernandez, a couple of guys with big dreams, to form a band who everyone would recognise to be That Band, the band that was definitive amongst the sea of samey crap that was floating around in the alternative rock scene at the time. Little did they know that, almost fifteen years later, the same band would go on to make a slew of top-selling records, recruit everyone from Dave Grohl to Mark Lanegan to Aaron bloody North to appear on said records, all whilst maintaining the same amount of credibility and integrity they’d promised themselves to begin with.
By 2006, ‘Queens Of The Stone Age’ had gone silver in the UK, quite a feat for a record so apparently hard to find. Hailed by critics as one of the greatest modern rock records of all time, it’s even been included in the book ‘1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die’. It’s a punchy LP that sounds fresh even now, with a cover that hints at both its contents and the traditions that QOTSA are still associated with today: good old fashioned sex, drugs and hard rock n roll. The album opens with a signature one-note riff and is instantly THERE, so hard you can practically feel your hair whipping in the wind. And as things move on to
the heavier ‘Avon’, ‘Mexicola’ and ‘Walkin On The Sidewalks’ you realise this record is faultess.
I read an interview with another band who compared Josh Homme to a modern day Elvis. It’s not something I’d thought about before to be honest, but not only can I now see it, but I can hear it too. He’s good and he knows it, a bit of a peacock really, but most importantly – incredibly distinctive, and really bloody good. TW
Physical release: 7 Mar
