Queens of the Stone Age - Villains

Post date: 08-Jan-2018 11:29:58

Thusly the eighties influence makes it’s way to Josh Homme’s troupe with 7th studio album ‘Villains’ quite deliberate this would seem as illustrated by the appointment of Mark Ronson as the album’s producer. Apparently Homme is quite the fan of ‘Uptown Funk’ and wanted to transfer some of the sheen and fun of that megahit to the new Queens album.

While it’s not an outright pop album it’s definitely a less intense album than previously produced by the band. Lighter sounding but funkier and looser, there’s still big riffs and the snarling attitude but it’s definitely more radio friendly (if there is such a thing nowadays).

There is a lot of great songs on ‘Villains’, ‘The Way You Used to Do’ has a gloriously fuzzy riff which propels the song at a breakneck pace, ‘Head Like a Haunted House’ pushes the rhythm section to the limits while Josh wails backed up with some hollering backing singers. ‘Hideaway’ is the slowest moving moment on the album it’s quite lovely, well as lovely as the Queens can get even if the hardcore fans may feel the album isn’t as heavy as they like.

Although there’s lots of the Ronson gold dust sprinkled over the album it never feels like it’s overwhelming and the core sound is fully intact but this is without a doubt Queens of the Stone Age’s most accessible album which is probably the whole point.