QOTSA ARE UNCONVENTIAL VILLAINS

Not to sound like an old grumpy music journalist, but…

… Major rock acts are far and few between. We’ve got, now considered, old timers such as Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters, Metallica and even a band such as Arctic Monkeys. And there’s the new generation of bands on the horizon, Royal Blood, Wolf Alice, DFA and Baroness. However, the bands hailed as rock gods, in the 80’s and 90’s, are nostalgia acts, such as The Smashing Pumpkins, Guns N’ Roses or Afghan Whigs.

So there’s something to it when Josh Homme and his Queen of the stone is set to release a new album. Villains is their sixth (edit: seventh) album and its as relevant as always. Mark Ronson as the producer of the album is an unconvential choice but going through the bands discography and you’ll find a lot of unconvential musical choices and genres. Homme is an exceptional songwriter not afraid of taking inspiration from the most unusual places and making it his own.

So it came as no surprise when the first single left some fans worried. But as Josh has said himself, they are always going to evolve to avoid doing the same thing over and over again. Much praise to Foo Fighters, but even if they might have perfected stadium rock over the years – Their albums have been quite the same since The Colour and The Shape. Just lesser versions with great singles.

New song, The Evil Has Landed

And like many fans, I was kind of worried after hearing the first single. This beat-driven track isn’t what I was hoping for and I’m afraid that there’s going to be too much Mark Ronson and too little Homme. But I’m still psyched to finally get to download the album once it comes out. Because there’s no way a band like QOTSA will hide behind sleek production tricks – In the end they are truly a great, classic rock n’ roll band. And we have to treasure evolution within old rock acts since its such a rare thing in 2017.

I’m still excited for the new generation, and I hope they evolve into something as good as the ones listed here. So it’s still not me trying to write another “rock n’ roll is dead” headline and complain about “music ain’t what it used to be”.

And one more thing. Once we get this album, can we please start pushing Josh and Dave together again to do another Them Crooked Vultures album? Pretty please?

– Mojib