Queens of the Stone Age – Villains – Album Review by Killian Laher

Josh Homme and co return with album number seven but this time with a twist: the band have teamed up with producer Mark Ronson in an ‘oil-and-water’ style effort to get their groove on.  To some ears (these ones), Queens of the Stone Age have never quite recaptured the mighty wallop of their 2000-2005 glory years.  So how do they sound 12 years on?  Pretty much like the musical equivalent of the awkward teenager years.  Although opener Feet Don’t Fail Me is a confident synth-rock stomper, it doesn’t quite ignite in the way this band are past masters at, and loses momentum halfway through with an overlong midsection breakdown.  Neurotic disco-rock song The Way You Used To Do was the first taste of this album and it’s a fairly charmless track, it might work well on some imaginary dancefloor somewhere, but it won’t find favour with fans of their rockier tracks.  Other tracks like Domesticated Animals and Hideaway see the band settle into a half-decent groove, they are decent mid-album tracks that could have appeared on previous albums but don’t stand out.  Elsewhere, Head Like A Haunted House tries to overcome a limited idea with breakneck pace, and Un-Reborn Again is a ringer for a rocked up version of T.Rex’s 20th Century Boy but it goes on for WAY too long at over six and a half minutes.

There are some better moments here, moody rocker Fortress is the kind of effortless mid-paced rocker they had plenty of on 2005’s Lullabies to Paralyze, while The Evil Has Landed packs more ideas into one song than most rock bands do over a whole album.  Though the music doesn’t quite measure up to the excellent title, it does deliver far more than most tracks on the album, particularly when the track revs up at the end.  But overall?  A kind of sullen, slightly rocky album that’s not easy to get into, and not in the same league as their older material.  So either they’ve moved on without me, or I’ve moved on without them.

Track List:

1. Feet Don’t Fail Me
2. The Way You Used To Do
3. Domesticated Animals
4. Fortress
5. Head Like A Haunted House
6. Un-Reborn Again
7. Hideaway
8. The Evil Has Landed
9. Villains of Circumstance

The Way You Used To Do