After nearly thirty years making music and releasing eight studio albums, Queens of the Stone Age can afford to let loose a little. Their ninth album, Perfecth, is a deliberate play on words. Lead singer Josh Homme describes the process of recording the album as like kintsugi — the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by filling its cracks with gold. When a broken object is mended, it takes on a new meaning, complete with the trauma and experiences of the past. “Every song sounds like it’s from a different zone,” says Homme. “And that’s on purpose, because it’s trying to stitch together all these emotions revolving around love, lust, foolishness, and the sort of wisdom that comes as a gift from all that.”
Recorded across different locations and time zones, the album is deliberately less concerned with sounding like a coherent whole than capturing a range of influences and experiences. Themes of love, friendship, and life dominate the album. The single “Insignificant Other” feels like an anti-love song, with possible echoes of the acrimonious divorce between Homme and Brody Dalle. It’s a bittersweet song, with soaring vocals, wailing guitars and an emphasis on the final syllable of “insignificaaant” that gives the word a wry double meaning. You can feel the pain and despair in the voice. How someone so significant can suddenly be the bane of your existence.
The album’s opening track, “It’s Only Love” introduces us to what is to come with a flourish. The track is almost carnival-like, as if we are about to watch an old movie or a vaudeville show. Then, just as you’ve settled in and feel like you have the album sorted, “Where The Goth Girls At?” jumps out unexpectedly. The lyric “I never felt so alive as the day I nearly died” perhaps hints at Homme’s past near-death experiences. The video is a mini-movie with a cameo appearance by Alexander Ward, known for portraying monsters in shows such as Westworld and American Horror Story. Definitely a left-field song for QoTSA, but a song that is fun and quirky.
Suddenly, the raw, stripped back “Mono” takes the album to a new level. With Bowie-influenced emotion, the song is dark and introspective. The music starts with a minimal arrangement and grows into a full-fledged sense of angst and trauma. Then the following song, “From the Cliff” is a sweet acoustic guitar ballad. Lyrics such as “The sun shines on your lips” shows that this record covers all emotions, not just angst and trauma.
The next song, “Sunday” is otherworldly and again feels Bowie influenced.” Originally appearing on Iggy Pop‘s 2016 album Post Pop Depression, which Homme produced and co-wrote, the song has been reworked here with a French disco feel. Recorded amid the chaos of New Orleans during Mardi Gras, it feels like a lazy Sunday afternoon after a big night out. Amazing track.
Then there’s the whimsical “Easy Street” with Nikki Lane on guest vocals. Her gravelly voice makes a beautiful counterpoint to Homme’s. It’s acoustic and serene, with clapping and joyful guitars, plus some psychedelic flourishes to boot. It feels like it’s set to become one of those singalong pub favourites. “Just shut up and fuck me or shut up and go away” is a fabulous lyric.
The album returns to more familiar territory on “Phantom Limb” and climbs to a crescendo with “Run Away From the Mob.” Honestly there’s not a bad track on the album. Unexpected, sure, but great songs.
Perfecth is an album that grabs you at first listen and improves with repeated spins. Whatever you might have been expecting from Queens of The Stone Age, you’d probably be wrong. However, it’s an album that doesn’t try to be perfect. The band have been around long enough to know how to create great songs and don’t have to prove anything. In fact, it’s the small imperfections that make it so good. This is an album that you’ll want to listen to over and over again.
FIVE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Perfecth, the most recent album from Queens of the Stone Age, is available via Matador Records / Remote Control Records
