CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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Review of Queens of the Stone Age, Era Vulgaris

Thursday, January 10, 2008

this entry brought to you by queens of the stone age, "make it wit chu"





I liked 2005's Lullabies to Paralyze a lot, but it wasn't without a few problems. My biggest qualm with that album was that I disliked the way it was mixed-- there was this weird drone over all of the vocals in particular. When I heard the first single off of Era Vulgaris, "Sick, Sick, Sick", I couldn't get the tune out of my head but also noticed that it seemed to be even more of that nasty drone from the previous record. I had the bad idea that it was probably going to mixed even further into this buzzy, murky direction I wanted, which was especially annoying because Songs For the Deaf, the Queens' best album, had a sound quality was just dirty enough, but still fresh and vibrant, and I've felt that level for the production was a peak for the band. When I heard the entirety of Vulgaris, my suspicions were correct: not only do the vocals sound like they're coming through a cloth on the microphone, all the instruments sound fuzzy and muddy; the lovely, blusey "Make it Wit Chu" was basically just a demo the last time I heard it on Desert Sessions Volume 9 & 10, yet somehow sounded warmer and fuller than it does here with the muggy production, and it bugged the shit out of me, even though I thought the songs themselves were a lot of fun.

Then I read a review in Spin that gave the album four stars, a higher grade than I would have given it. "This album sounds exactly what it's like to be on drugs," the reviewer gushed.

See, here's the thing. I've never actually been on drugs, so I don't know what albums should sound like while under their influence. I know when psychedelic music is imitating the experience of being on hallucinogenic drugs when I hear it, but I don't know what non-psychedelic music itself should sound like when listened to while high. Suddenly I had an all-new appreciation for the album that wasn't there before. I don't get it necessarily because I've never been high, but the first time I listened to Era Vulgaris I thought, goddammit! Why does Josh Homme insist on making each album sound worse than the last? Now I know it's not just laziness or sloppiness-- it's all done on purpose, there's a method to the fuzziness. The drums all sound distant, like they were recorded in another room than the rest of the band, the guitars are so fuzzy that when the whole band gets into a groove it practically sounds cloudy, and Homme's sweet croon sounds like it has a weird muffle over it, and now that I know this is what it sounds like to be on drugs, well, it all makes sense, and it's interesting to listen to.

Which does nothing to mention of the songs themselves. If Lullabies to Paralyze was a slightly more professional, more artsy album than its predecessors, this is the fuck-all album. Homme is extremely comfortable with the level of stardom he's at-- his band is popular enough that he'll have a large, dedicated fanbase that will listen to whatever he wants to put out, but he's not so over-the-top popular that he has to take everything so damned seriously (as the fantastically silly album artwork demonstrates), and the work ethic on this album is obvious that he doesn't give a damn whether it gets radio play or not. His lyrics are even more stream-of-conscious and well, a little druggy, but they're not druggy to the point of idiocy. More often than not show off a sly sense of humor, even when compared to previous albums, which you could never accuse of being humorless, especially on "I Am Designer", where Homme sings about being in a slacker generation: "You've made me an offer I can refuse/ Counter proposal-- I go home and jerk off!"; or on the opener, "Turnin' on the Screw", where Homme gets a couplet inspired from Silence Of the Lambs "You got a question, please don't ask it/ It puts the lotion in the basket". Yet the quiet, introspective moments feel just as dead-on-- in the case of the lovely "Suture Up Your Future", perhaps more so than in the past. The music is still based on crunchy, springy riffs (personified on lead single "Sick, Sick, Sick" and the sweeping guitar of "3's and 7's") and awesome, kinetic drumming, as always-- extra nods go to drummer Joey Castillo) . Yet there's some unidentifiable quality here that feels looser and more comfortable, like a band that's gelled well together, whereas Lullabies felt more like the Josh Homme show with backing musicians.

Era Vulgaris is not Queens of the Stone Age's best album, but it obviously is not meant to. In fact, it doesn't really seem to be meant to do anything other than let Josh Homme stretch out in the comfort of being in a band where he entirely calls the shots again, and that swaggering confidence is assuring.
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with love from CRS @ 9:51 AM 

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