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Queens Of The Stone Age announce Mark Ronson-produced new album

By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 16 June 2017

Queens Of The Stone Age are all set to release a new album called ‘Villains’ on 25 Aug. Guess the producer. Nope. Nope. Nope. OK, I’ll tell you, it’s Mark Ronson. As a result, they now sound a bit Mark Ronson-y.

“The most important aspect of making this record was redefining our sound”, says the band’s Josh Homme of how they came to be a bit Ronson-y. “Asking and answering the question ‘what do we sound like now?’ If you can’t make a great first record, you should just stop – but if you can make a great record but you keep making records and your sound doesn’t evolve, you become a parody of that original sound”.

On his role in making them sound a bit Ronson-y, Ronson adds: “Queens are and have always been my favourite rock n roll band ever since I walked into Tower on Sunset and bought ‘Rated R’ in the summer of 2000. So it was incredibly surreal to be welcomed into their secret, pirate clan – or the ‘jacuzzi’ as Josh likes to call it”.

Sticking with this nonsense jargon, he continues: “I also knew that my super fandom alone would not keep me in the jacuzzi. There were moments during the making of the album in which I was aware I was watching my musical heroes craft something that was sure to become one of my favourite moments on any Queens album. And to have some part in that felt like being in a dream – a very heavy, dark, wonderful dream”.

Listen to the Ronson-y new QOTSA single, ‘The Way You Used To Do’, here:

And what new album release – Ronson-y or otherwise – would be complete without a few tour dates? Here are some, tickets for which don’t even go on sale until next Wednesday:

19 Nov: Manchester Arena
21 Nov: London, O2 Arena
23 Nov: Edinburgh, Usher Hall
24 Nov: Dublin, 3 Arena