Era Vulgaris is proof positive that necessity is, indeed, the mother of invention. After all, a quick survey of the rock n’ roll landscape reveals an incomprehensible suffocation of the vital ingredients of kick-ass and creativity that, when mixed together, formed some of the greatest rock bands in music history. Instead, modern bands might possess one or the other and then the rest of the lemmings simply mimic what they like, resulting in our current imaginative-to-overdone-in-minutes climate.
Enter Josh Homme, frontman for Queens of the Stone Age, to answer the call. Cleverly mixing the bombastic with originality for another one-of-a-kind effort, Era Vulgaris succeeds brilliantly, declaring rock music again as triumphant in an era where it’s anything but.
“Turnin’ On The Screw” opens the album with lo-fi syncopation, Foo Fighters-esque riffs, and buzzing samples that blend into a much needed declaration that the Queens are in fact kings of modern-era rock. Julian Casablancas, vocalist for The Strokes, joins for lead single “Sick Sick Sick” which rides dreamy distortion between verses and closes with a blistering riff progression.
For the most part, Era Vulgaris continues to thrust, twist, provoke and sear in all the right places. Slowing things down on “Suture Up Your Future” and “Make It Wit Chu”, Homme shows his lighter, slower side, particularly on the latter which finds a southern barroom groove accompanying the material. “Into The Hollow” ventures toward a darker side as Homme ruminates, “I break what I’ve always borrowed/ That’s why I always go alone into tomorrow.”
While most praise Songs for the Deaf as QoTSA’s best, the band’s fifth album, Era Vulgaris, might actually exceed it in terms of consistency and style. Homme clearly remains one of rock’s brightest stars and the band further cements their place in the front of the rock n’ roll line.
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