On their third album,
Songs for the Deaf
,
Queens of the Stone Age
are so concerned with pleasing themselves with what they play that they don't give a damn for the audience. This extends to the production, with the entire album framed as a broadcast from a left-of-the-dial AM radio station, the sonics compressed so every instrument is flattened. It's a joke run wild, punctuated by an ironic mock DJ, and it fits an album where the players run wild. As usual,
Josh Homme
and
Nick Oliveri
have brought in a number of guests, including
Mark Lanegan
on vocals and
Dean Ween
on guitar, but they've anchored themselves with the drumming of the mighty
Dave Grohl
, who helps give the band the muscle sorely missing from most guitar rock these days, whether it's indie rock or insipid alt-metal.
QOTSA
may be a muso band -- a band for musicians and those who have listened to too much music; why else did the greatest drummer and greatest guitarist in '90s alt-rock (
Grohl
Ween
, respectively) anxiously join this ever-shifting collective? -- but that's the pleasure of the band, and
in particular: it's restless and pummeling in its imagination and power. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine