The Last Word: Queens Of The Stone Age Commit An “Era”

Brian Raftery | June 11, 2007 9:58 am
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Every week, we round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today’s entry is Queens Of The Stone Age’s Era Vulgaris, which is released tomorrow:

– “The buzz-bomb riffs of ‘Misfit Love’ and ‘Sick, Sick, Sick’ throw off hectic, scrabbling, dissonant chords like shrapnel, while ‘3’s and 7’s’ juggles choppy, syncopated chords and skidding slide guitar. Throughout the album Mr. Homme is sometimes snide, sometimes desolate: ‘There is safe place to hide,’ he warns in ‘Run, Pig, Run.’ People keep letting him down, but the guitars never do.” [New York Times] – “No one’s going to confuse him with Bob Dylan any time this century, but you could put much worse in your mouth than lines like, ‘My generation’s for sale/ Beats a steady job/ How much have you got?’ or, ‘You can’t lose it if you never had it/ Disappear man, do some magic.’ It’s at points like these when Era Vulgaris truly comes to life. Unfortunately for listeners, those moments are few and far between, leaving fans to trudge back to older Queens records for the fix they crave. 6.2″ [Pitchfork] – “Era Vulgaris revels in depravity and brings the thunder, all right, whether it’s the jackhammer shakedown of ‘Run Pig Run’ or the lockstep crunch of ‘Battery Acid.’ But Homme – who also plays drums in Eagles of Death Metal – is a California desert rocker who has a knack for insinuating melodic hooks into his power-drill riffs. And the singer-guitarist is also slick with his makeout music moves, as he impressively pitches woo, Al Green-style, on ‘Make It Wit Chu’ and offers his hand to lead his intended ‘Into the Hollow.’ Three and 1/2 stars. [Philadelphia Inquirer]