Zack: The closest I’ve come to Queens of the Stone Age before is through Them Crooked Vultures, a supergroup with Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters and Nirvana) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin). When I first started listening to them about two years ago, I remember telling my suitemate about them. He told me he had already checked them out and overall kind of liked what he heard. His one complaint, however, was that the band featured “that [expletive] from Queens of the Stone Age.” At the time, I didn’t get what he meant. Them Crooked Vultures were very different sounding and I just assumed that a large portion of that was due to Mr. Homme. Well, after listening to this album, I think I get what my suitemate was talking about back then. Them Crooked Vultures are very different sounding. They incorporate a lot of different sounds, rhythms, and time signatures into their songs. Queens of the Stone Age are kind of similar, except that they sacrifice the diversity in sound for a more traditional hard rock appeal. You could say this makes it more accessible, but I think it just makes it boring. You could do worse than to listen to this album, but why settle when another band does the same thing better?
Favorite Tracks: Hispanic Impressions; If Only; You Can’t Quit Me Baby
Emily: A while back, we listened to an album by another band with the word “queen” in their name – The Good, the Bad, and the Queen. Of course, I tried to make connections in my head between that album and Queens of the Stone Age because I kept getting them confused. Both are self-titled debuts and…that’s about where the similarities end. While the former album was more alternative and electronic-y, today’s Queens were much more rock. It’s a solid modern hard-rock album from a solid modern hard-rock band, but nothing really stood out as unique. I’d like to hear some of their later stuff to see how their sound progressed and changed; this is a debut after all. Come to think of it, I had a similar reaction to The Good, the Bad, and the Queen – I guess they have more in common than I thought.
Favorite Tracks: Avon; Hispanic Impressions; Regular John
No comments:
Post a Comment