This June, I’ve been strangely drawn to these three albums. Could it be all that testosterone? Watch out for your sister if they get their hands on her...
Queens Of The Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
If you’ve been attending music festivals in the UK this year, or watching music coverage on TV, you can hardly have missed Queens of the Stone Age thrashing out their latest material in your face, without mercy. Their new album Era Vulgaris is an audacious, scary, sexy, arrogant, strutting, noisy, devastatingly good-looking bastard son of nasty mainstream rock. From the horror-film opening drone of “Turnin’ on the Screw”, through the skull-hammering “Sick, Sick, Sick” and post-modern Jaggerisms of “Make It Wit Chu” it’s clear that QOTSA will have no mercy in this melodic, psychotic rock offering.
My designer friend, who is already a fan of QOTSA and couldn't wait to listen to this new album, says it's very different to their other stuff - much darker, more frightening, harder. This may account for the one-or-two less than flattering reviews it has received - sometimes people want safety, through more-of-the-same. All I can say is, I want more like this. In the words of Josh Homme, the singer/guitarist/ “mind” of QOTSA,
“It’s actually a reaction to what we think is the era vugaris. You don’t have time. I already know that. And, so, here we go: Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow. In a world of short bursts, it’s like trying to reach down someone’s throats in two seconds.”
That's bound to hurt.
Era Vulgaris will take your sister and your mother for a dark trip to a strange place, and leave your dad bleeding in the driveway.
The 88 - Over and Over
Such clean-cut, smart-looking guys! The 88's Over and Over demonstrates a variety of charm-offensives, and demonstrates a sound grounding in pop, without sacrificing originality and musicianship. I first encountered The 88 when I watched them perform their up-beat, slightly manic “All ‘Cause of You” on YouTube this year. Frankly, I fell hopelessly in love with the song and the lead singer as soon as I watched the performance: one of those web-crushes you get when you’re stumbling around the Internet randomly and finally find there is something worthwhile, something alive and fresh about this 2005 album, with a hard edge which doesn’t detract from its dance-ability.
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