REVIEW: QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE - IN TIMES NEW ROMAN...

4/5

Queen's New Roman.

A fortnight following Josh Homme's Them Crooked Vultures supergroup co-star and 'No One Knows', 'Songs For The Deaf' era drummer Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters releasing their first album since the passing of dear drummer Taylor Hawkins ('But Here We Are'), and one week after arguably the biggest and best album of the year ('Paranoïa, Angels, True Love') by Christine and the Queen's, comes the most cohesive by the Queens of the Stone Age. And it's all written in your favourite font, 'In Times New Roman' (Fontastic!). Yet, nothing about this eighth wonder of an album from the Seattle based stoner desert, alternative rock and metal act is regular or go-to. All the way down to the aesthetic artwork that's so awesome it looks like the kind of tattoo Otto from 'The Simpsons' would rock behind those guitars that, you know, are like double guitars, man?

For the Queens' first album since the 'Villains' of 2017, singer Josh Homme's has been through the worst times of his life. Recently revealing he has undergone cancer treatment (we hope all is and continue to wish him well). Writing about these dark days, from God Rick Rubin's legendary Malibu's Shangri-la studios to a Readymade one in Paris, he does so 'In Times New Roman'. And the first Word document of a single comes with 'Emotion Sickness' for those suffering from too much of that on life's journey. The penultimate album track sings, "You got no possessions, just your flesh on, yeah/See the sights, Holy Braille/Feel as you might, ah/Rip some pieces free/Oh, atrocious, f-ferocious, yeah/Check the price/Alibi, buy by the slice/Yeah, absolutely." Said to be about Homme's relationship with ex-wife Brody Dalle. As both sides are telling their story right now. 

This Matador record from QOTSA charges in with the outstanding obscenity of 'Obscenary' to lay the scene perfectly. The second single belongs to the new classic 'Carnavoyeur', the best sounding track on an album from a band that you can just let play in the background as their signature sound can rock and roll you on an even smoother tide. Especially for a metal act from the grungy domain of Seattle, Washington. The latest single, however, is the second song on this top ten tracked album. 'Paper Machete' cuts you to the quick too as Homme in heavy harmony declares, "They're out to get you aren't they?/The kids, the man, the chicks, the breaks/I don't care what you think anymore/Doesn't matter anyway/Joan of arc, victim, perpetrator/Just a paper machete/The truth is just a peace of clay/You sculpt, you change, you hide, then you erase/You think you're brave?/All the plans you made/

Behind my back and from far away?Truth is, face to face, you're a coward/Sharp as a paper machete." Making manipulation face up to the mirror. There are some who just listen to music and let the wise words from a weary soul pass them buy. There are others that read the lines on the paper until they set in like tears that run like ink. If this sounds like you, or something you've been through, maybe it's time to draw a new line. 

Bearded and bedraggled through all the brutal pain, Homme still makes something beautiful through all the 'Negative Space' and brooding, bouncing back. There's a 'Time & Place' to make records like this, and it's here, rocking back harder. On 'Made To Parade' Josh jolts those who aren't living their own lives in this world that loves likes more than the heart of what matters. "Oh, I don't know what time it was/I just felt so young with a brand-new page in the morning sun/So you're made to parade with the mess you made?/Well, by all means/If I followed you, I'd be lost too, that can never be/So you're made to parade with the mess you made?/Well, float away/If I followed you, I'd be lost too, that can never be." Make sure you follow your own one. No matter 'What The Peephole Say' as people look through the doors to your lives without wiping their feet on the welcome mat.

Homme, Dean Fertita, Michael Shuman, Jon Theodore, Troy Van Leeuwen stun on the second-best track of the Seattle's supersonic album, 'Sicily'. Like Italy, it inspires sunshine through all these dark days heavier than metal or the blood-red bandana wrapped around the album cover's temple. "You're all peaches and cream/Pink nightmares/Lust a wild ocean/Don't rescue me, I'm drowning in wet dreams it seems", mixes the beauty of love with f###ing explicity. Juxtaposing like the love and hate of love and life. "I'm all used up again/I beat myself like a broken record/Objectified, misuse me as directed/My sweet nothing/The pound of flesh again/Silhouettes witness sheer devotion/I trace your hips/Oh, slow motion/I live between/Your legs." Feeling at a turn in bed, at times like a safe haven, at others in the middle of a sleepless, dark night, a prison. These themes are all wrestled with right until the classic closer 'Straight Jacket Fitting' that will suit and boot you around for almost ten minutes. In these new Roman times, your Stone Age favourites take the throne again. Yet in this game, rocks are still thrown from King's and Queen's, as the head remains as heavy as the heart. It was just written this way. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Emotion Sickness', 'Carnavoyeur', 'Sicily'.