Queens of the Stone Age have lost their piss and vinegar, or weird, infectious, artsy desert-rock drive, and replaced it with a mostly atmospheric rock/acoustic album. Save for In Times New Roman… I’ve at least checked out every QOTSA album. For me, the art rock QOTSA era ended with ...Like Clockwork; even then, nothing touches the self-titled debut, Rated R, and Songs for the Deaf trilogy. The follow-up to …Like Clockwork in 2017, Villains, offered more of a mainstream pop-rock sound, but it did earn the band more fans, so I can’t fault them for it. Still, it kind of left me milquetoast on anything new coming from Josh Homme and Co.
So now, we have this ninth album, Perfecth and it’s a very different vibe than I was expecting. The band has traded out the strange, chord-structured desert rock for a more orchestral crooner vibe, and sometimes it really works, and other times it feels way too James Bond, boomer rock. I don’t know when the band decided that simple 4/4 music fit the QOTSA sound, but it really kills any anticipation I have with songs like “Where The Goth Girls At,”and I just can’t abide with that track title.
The opener, “It’s Only Love,” gave me a muted “The Mosquito Song,” cool vibe, but then most of the album is quite OK. The Bowie-esque space rock flair on “Sunday” really didn’t work for me, and Homme should never be singing backup. Save for a few cool string and orchestral rock moments, Perfecth doesn’t really stick for me. Better than Villains, but just a bit.
