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Album Review: Queens Of The Stone Age - Villains

I've been attempting to write more reviews, so I wanted to begin with my review of this album that came out a couple weeks ago!

After the brooding, intense, and emotional masterpiece that was 2013's ...Like Clockwork, Queens Of The Stone Age return with an album that looks to bring back a lot of the band's energy. Frontman Josh Homme has always followed the credo of never repeating oneself, and with Villains, he definitely achieves that feat once again, taking a chance with super producer Mark Ronson at the helm. However, does it still provide a good listen?

Villains begins with an ominous build-up, which leads into the introductory track, Feet Don't Fail Me. It's an intro that literally feels like it's pulling the band right out of ...Like Clockwork and into a whole new adventure. It's a fun, danceable number, with a nice jagged rhythm to get you started. The band have always produced excellent album openers, and this one is no exception. The uptempo vibes continue right into the first single of the album, The Way You Used To Do, which is a swinging number that keeps the fun vibes going before we get into the meat of the album.

Domesticated Animals and Fortress bring the tempo down a bit, but are solid, if a little plain. This is where I feel a bit of a rift with Villains. These songs have excellent bits and pieces, but on repeated listens, they feel a bit... empty. The chorus in Domesticated Animals has that nice, eerie quirkiness that I love in a Queens song. But the rest of the song feels a tad plodding. The verse guitar riff is quite bare in the first verse, and almost seems wasted. It's not until the entire band is playing around it that it picks up a bit of purpose. Fortress has similar issues, although it has its heart in the right place. Luckily, the album picks up again with Head Like A Haunted House. Homme's Elvis-like presence is enthralling in a surf-rock inspired track reminiscent of The Dead Kennedys. It's a song that comes in, grooves as hard as possible, and leaves a lasting impression.

Un-Reborn Again, Hideaway, and The Evil Has Landed all suffer the same kinds of problems which plagued the other more plain tracks of the album. Without endlessly comparing this album to their older work, I will say that their two previous albums, Era Vulgaris and ...Like Clockwork felt loaded with personality. I do not get that same kind of thrill with Villains. Both previous albums had the quirks, the tongue-in-cheek moments, the hard rock, and all the weirdness you could ask for, wrapped up in collections of wonderful songwriting. Now, this doesn't equate to it being a bad album. It just seems to fall flat in certain places, as it simply cannot keep the momentum going with songs that seem to feel more safe than anything else. There are no exciting twists and turns that are able to shift the moods of the songs in enthralling directions.

It doesn't help that the production feels lacking, with virtually no punch at all to give it that extra oomph. I've heard through interviews that this was a conscious decision for the album's sound, and while it does work for some parts of the album, it seems to drastically suffocate other parts. A good example being the final two minutes of The Evil Has Landed. The uptempo, charging guitars bring the song to a close. However, the guitars sound so subdued that it's hard to get a genuine feeling for the energy meant to close the track. These moments end up plaguing parts of the album, when it desperately could've used more vigour.

The album closes with Villains Of Circumstance, which is a nicely layered closer with a more fulfilled, positive conclusion. It almost feels like the happier counterpart to ...Like Clockwork's titular closing track, which felt significantly more dreary and cynical. Villains is able to finish on a strong note as a result, wrapping up an uneven collection of songs.

The inconsistency that Villains presents is an unfortunate result, as I had high hopes for this record. It certainly has its high moments and flashes of brilliance here and there, but there are less of these moments than I had originally hoped there would be. I find it an unsatisfying album to finish all the way through, and it just doesn't seem as fun as their previous records. Even the cloudy moods of ...Like Clockwork provide more exciting moments overall. Still, it is an album worth checking out for fans of the band. It just may not always scratch the itch that their discography has always accomplished in the past.


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