Queens of the Stone Age lean into humour, heartbreak and a new iteration of the band. This is going to have fans divided, but has a whole lot of character and style from the founders of desert rock.
Josh Homme never cared, and now he doesn’t care even more. The frontman of Queens of the Stone Age has had a lot of revelations in the past six years, mostly personal. For musicians who have been making music before computers, AI doesn’t even make a dent in their lives. After 2023’s “…In Times New Roman”, fans noticed a moody lingering melancholia creeping up in all their songs. The heavy QOTSA you are used to will creep up behind you at times, but this is definitely a new era. This is their latest album, “Perfecth.”
The new stakes
The ever-charismatic and cool Josh Homme didn’t have the best of the past few years, though the world seems to be barreling downhill for everyone. His divorce was messy; he got cancer, and news about abuse was flying around faster than he could get around to it. Homme chose the hermit route, and there were revelations he had to make alone. Of course, this is reflected in his music, as he helms the band with some of the most die-hard fans around the world. They’re calling this music “post-depression rock”, and I don’t think there’s a better-fitting term for it.
Finding the vibe for the album
A lot of the sound you’re hearing right now will be inspired by Queens of the Stone Age performing “Live at the Catacombs”. This was a unique art project where Homme and crew were covering some of their older songs in a whole different arrangement. This involved orchestra elements; the echoing reverb of the catacomb was naturally captured, and of course, the ambience. Maybe there was something about being in a literal maze echoing with your own music that made the band take this turn into a very different subgenre even for them. You heard a part of it on their previous album. Now they’re going to jump into the pit, and they’re calling all of us.
How the album is laid out
You’ll hear about three types of songs on this album. One is the groovy rock-heavy tracks like “Where the Goth Girls At” , “Sunday” and “Run Away From the Mob”. Then come your melancholy, moody synth and orchestra soaked tracks like “It’s Only Love”, “Mono” and “Easy Street”. You have acoustic numbers like “From the Cliff” as well, or stuff in between like “Insignificant Other” and “Phantom Limb”. It’s an easy classification done based on mood but the details the band has gone into are incredibly complex and rewarding. Forget every other iteration of the band you have known and go into this just for the experience of the album. For the strange maze it is, I promise that there are more than some pleasant surprises.
There are feelings of lament and heartbreak with the opening called “It’s Only Love,” though Homi tries to justify it as something people fall in and out of throughout their lives. The longing is represented through longer instrumental breaks and the intangible parts of what you feel. Troy Van Leeuwen and Dean Fertilia get more hands on with aspects of ambience, and they’ve found a style that cannot be replicated. Not only does the band maintain this chemistry during their recordings, but they also know what gruel and sugar to add to it when they’re performing live.
Revisiting vibes from before
The song seamlessly flows into “Insignificant Other,” a track that many heard when it was released as a single. It has rich vibes of what 2013’s “Like Clockwork…” sounded like, and it’s very possible it’s a track nipped of those years. Homme has stated in many interviews that some of the songs began as ideas earlier on, and he’s been able to revisit them from a fresh new perspective and make it fit brilliantly within this collection. His voice sounds better than ever and that lazy yet confident drawl in which he sings now has even more weight to it if you’ve followed parts of his personal life.
It’s not all doom and gloom as well. There are songs like “Where the Goth Girls At?” which is almost being designed as an uplift in the album. It is groovy, plays with an odd time signature, and has a great chorus that will remind you of early Queens of the Stone Age. I’m really digging the harmonies in this particular album. They are unpredictable, and bridge sections suddenly change tempo and scale. The next song “Mono” is straight out of the catacombs session. If you’ve checked out the performance, you know how emotions percolate and make the sound much more haunting and ambient. You can call this kind of song their very evident departure from the more stoner rock genre they helped define.
Acoustics and puzzle pieces
The acoustic number “From The Cliff “ kind of tells you how this album can become QOTSA’s Led Zeppelin IV. The other band members are more restrained while Josh Homme speaks his mind through poetic realisation. Again as you retreat into this softer version of Queens of the Stone Age, they shift the groove up on a track like “Sunday”. This one sounds very inspired by the famous Kiss song “I Was Made for Loving You.” Co-writing the lyrics with Iggy Pop, Homme brings that 80s punk rock thrill while having their own design to it. From the riff section to the kind of galloping drum parts, Josh also knows how to give his flowers to the ones that have helped him groove and move through all these years.
Released as one of their first singles, “Easy Street” comes in next. It has a very different classification and style from any of the other songs and follows the same vein as “From the Cliff.” The rhythmic clapping section or Josh’s vocals, are fitting for this kind of vibe and if this is the kind of music we get as part of his healing, it’s something to really consider. Nikki Lane sings with Homme on this one, and collaborations are tailored to the song to have such an important feel to it.
Have a complaint? Let them know
By the time you reach “Phantom Limb”, you might forget that there was a range of this in “Era Vulgaris” as well. It’s two decades since then, yet I’m reminded of how in many ways the band still keeps us craving their old material while having class in departing from their older identity. Have a complaint to lodge against this “mellow and frankly weak-sounding” QOTSA (Reddit comment, obviously)? Call +1 (760) 437-1966, it’s their official grievance cell. Bitch, moan and complain directly to the band; they’re listening. I wish I was kidding. Even reality spits on the face of satire nowadays.
Also, Josh Homme heard how much you missed Dave Grohl on the drums since “Songs for the Deaf”. He’s back for one track only, on “Run Away From the Mob”. A fitting groove, Grohl feeds to the early and new versions of this band extremely well. I can see why long time fans would lament for their sudden change in structure, but I find the change refreshing. We’ve had glimpses of this when they’ve performed on KEXP’s live show as well. Now, this is a 3.0 for a band that wants to keep reinventing and experimenting.
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Self professed metalhead, moderately well read. If the music has soul, it's whole to me. The fact that my bio could have ended on a rhyme and doesn't should tell you a lot about my personality.
