Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: Queens of the Stone Age
Label: Polydor Records
Release: 2007
Ohoho – a new batch of Haribo gummy candy! Ever since Nick Oliveri left, it’s been all downhill for Queens Of The Stone Age. Homme tries to patch things up by inviting special guests, sure. You can feel the influence of ideas “from the outside”, which will hopefully infect the band with a shot at recovery. Undeniably. On “Era Vulgaris” the Queens Of The Stone Age sound has lost, to the extreme, the naturally ringing oomph of “Songs For The Deaf” (2002), replaced by a riff dressed in off-the-rack cosmetic synthetics of clanging tin and the muffled whinnying of a circular saw. We’re talking, of course, about the band’s swerve into industrial waters.
On “Era Vulgaris” Homme often sticks to singing through an effect, which doesn’t bury the “stoned” element that carried the band to success at the turn of the millennium and makes a nice, decent contrast to the industrially cobbled-together riffs. But this time the control over the QOTSA sound simply gets in the way.
You expect Queens Of The Stone Age to be simple, direct and extremely pissed off. All of that has been castrated by exactly this excessive sound control in the studio, which robbed the band of its spontaneity and with it the dose of humor and sparkling rebellious mockery that was so typical of Oliveri’s positively unhinged, gloriously crazy era, when QOTSA disarmed the listener with convincing stonedness and avalanches of authentic, recognizable rock n’ roll energy. Still, “Era Vulgaris” carries a convincing touch of gloom from the first second to the last. So the mood works up to a point, but it never fully comes to life.
After the, frankly, musically expressive and completely paralyzed adventure that was “Lullabies To Paralyze”, which felt more like a confessional side project of Josh Homme’s, “Era Vulgaris” brings more adrenaline back into QOTSA’s expression. The opener Turnin’ On the Screw sends a chill down your spine in an instant with its newfangled sound production. Battery Acid is basically an identical replica of its riff, and despite these templates of triviality both songs still stir up a decent amount of interest, since Homme’s use of vocal effects effectively pulls his voice, deliberately retro, back to the days of rockabilly production and the kingdom of Elvis Presley (the latter fits neatly into the picture of Hollywood debauchery). River In The Road, and Sick, Sick, Sick too, race along in rock n’ roll packaging, but the tin-can getup of the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz holds them back from unleashing the band’s former fury.
But the whole thing also has to be looked at from the angle of the message “Era Vulgaris” is trying to get across. With the new album, Homme leans on Hollywood. In that respect, the grimacing through the cosmetic touch-ups of cybernetic sound prosthetics gets a precisely measured place in the eyes of the corruption of today’s Californian mecca, and is fully justified. So instead of hot, southern-style stoned rock n’ roll bashing, Homme gives us a look into the self-importance of the lives of people who are completely full of shit. The gloomy, dreary atmosphere of the album is more than fitting this time, and Homme passes the exam with flying colors in creating it on Run, Pig Run. Homme’s singing, with its “stonedness,” conveys just the right feeling of total degradation of values in an individual who sold off their own identity for a mountain of money long ago.
Interestingly, when we look for the most authentic rock n’ roll moments, the ones with that naturally sparkling color of “riff drive”, this time we find them in the slowed-down moments of the record, like Into The Hollow, Make It With Chu or Suture Up Your Future. Interestingly, along with them the general modernization of the “Era Vulgaris” sound has overlooked this in the mid-tempo rock n’roll stretch of 3’s & 7’s too. Maybe even on purpose, to draw attention to itself, since it’s the album’s first single, released even before “Era Vulgaris”. But far from the fury and effectiveness of QOTSA’s rebellious barking from five years ago!
Let me wrap it up like this. Homme managed to bring the stupidity of Hollywood effectively close, but he sacrificed the primal quality of Queens Of The Stone Age to do it, and personally I’d recommend he’d have been better off channeling his anger at Hollywood’s stupidity in the studio. Instead, the artist literally stepped into the shoes of a decadent degenerate of high society rather than attacking him with all the arrogant and furious artillery that once adorned the band’s famous stoner rock n’ roll. Sure, QOTSA served up a different record, with a different sound production. But with “Era Vulgaris” they increasingly come across as nothing more than the personal confessional manifesto of Mr. Homme. Let’s hope his urge for further sound sophistication passes quickly. Queens Of The Stone Age, as a band in the sense of a unit, are losing their credibility with “Era Vulgaris” in the all-embracing light, a credibility built on the solid foundations of the first three albums! “Era Vulgaris” is a seriously oomph-castrated and very soul-crushing album.
Line-up
Josh Homme – guitar, vocals
Troy Van Leeuwen – guitar
Joey Castillo – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Alan Johannes – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals
Chriss Goss – keyboards, organ, piano, backing vocals
Julian Casablancas – guitar, backing vocals
Serrina Sims – backing vocals
Brody Dalle-Homme – backing vocals
Liam Lynch – backing vocals
Mark Lanegan – vocal harmonies
Production
Josh Homme & Chriss Goss
Tracklist
1. Turnin’ On The Screw
2. Sick Sick Sick
3. I’m Designer
4. Into The Hollow
5. Misfit Love
6. Battery Acid
7. Make It Wit Chu
8. 3’s And 7’s
9. Suture Up Your Future
10. River In The Road
11. Run Pig Run
12. Running Joke
13. Era Vulgaris
Album length: 54.42
