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My Review of Them Crooked Vultures

Last night, I went to Tiger Lily and heard a bunch of people talk excitedly about this album.  It seems like this album, along with Blakroc, is the the proverbial shit right now.  One person I talked to said it was the greatest rock band ever assembled.  They had my attention.  They even have a song called, “Scumbag Blues.”  What is it?  The bass player is John Paul Jones!  The drummer is Dave Grohl!  And the frontman is Josh Homme.  Okay.  So I guess my enjoyment of this album depends on how much I like Queens of the Stone Age.  Therein lies the rub.

QOTSA are just fine, but I don’t really listen to them.  But hey, that song, “No One Knows” is pretty cool, right?  And it’s not like I can sit around listening to Led Zeppelin II and Get Behind Me Satan for the rest of my life.  Right?  Right?

When I started listening to the first song, “No One Loves Me & Either Do I”, I felt like Homme’s voice didn’t fit with the music as well as I wanted.  I wanted Robert Plant or Jack White (or even Grohl) and Homme really never really mans up.  But when the second half of the song cranks up, I thought to myself that if the entire album is as nasty, then I’ll be fully on board.  And that’s my basic problem with the album: I love the music.  I wish they had another singer.  Sometimes I’m listening to a “what if David Bowie sang for Zeppelin” mashup.  Don’t tease me, Josh Homme.  Why bother making the music so brutal and awesome if you’re just gonna sing androgynously along with it?  The quintessential example is “Gunman.”  A super awesome riff and drum beat are all for not because of whatever the fuck Homme decided to do with the vocals.

If you like Queens of the Stone Age, you’ll love this.  I didn’t dislike it.  At all.  It’s just kinda like when guys complain about HJ’s.  Hear me out.  It’s still pretty good, but it’s disappointing when you know that 2/3 of the group is capable of F’ing the S out of you.  B+