Well, here it is. Four long years after …Like Clockwork, Josh Homme and company have returned with their most eye-opening record ever. Teaming up with Mark Ronson of all people, as producer, the band has stylistically changed their sound, and for people who love old Queens, this might be just a bit too much to take.
The intro on “Feet Don’t Fail Me” kicks into a jam with funky bass and a full-on dance atmosphere that one is definitely not used to hearing on a Queens record. The song is just too weird; I’m not much of a dancin’ fool so this type of ‘rock’ music doesn’t really speak to me. I have a friend who was shakin’ his groove thang all over the house when this came out, but for me, I had difficulty finding anything I could really get behind. The first single, “The Way You Used To Do,” sounds like absolute crap, like just about everything else on the radio right now. One of the rare cuts here that has that old shot of classic Queens is “Domesticated Animals,” which has some really good guitar work and tones down the danceability just enough to make the song worth it.
“Un-Reborn Again” is overly long and includes a Georgia Satellites rip-off lyric and doesn’t really go anywhere, though it does have some nice guitar work. For whatever reason, Homme has come a long, long way from Kyuss and this is the result: a collection of songs that I personally was quite disappointed by. “The Evil Has Landed” comes off with a bit of pop music that is another surprising departure from a band that had been very heavy in their previous material.
The softer finale “Villains Of Circumstance” is a decent enough way to end the record; it’s probably the catchiest track here, sounding a bit like Lullabies To Paralyze era Queens. Overall, I think it would be best to chalk this up to wanting to try things a bit differently, and in my opinion, not really succeeding all that well.
