Local Airwaves is your source for the lowdown on tracks soon to be heard on WKNC. This week’s album is “Villains” by Queens of the Stone Age.
I’ll be honest, Queens of the Stone Age, also known as QOTSA, have never greatly impressed me. They’ve put out a few pretty good tracks that I’ve been able to rock out to with my friends, but they land in the same place in terms of my affections as beloved 90’s one hit wonders like Semisonic or Toadies. Those few songs they’ve got are great, but I can go years without thinking about them.
In fact, that’s literally what happened since the last QOTSA album; I completely forgot they existed. The problem that I have with most of what the band writes is that for a mix of reasons, their songs just aren’t that memorable. They can be incredibly catchy, but they don’t strike an emotional resonance, and they don’t exactly fill a niche within the modern rock genre. As is, QOTSA is at best an associated act of the Foo Fighters (which in itself isn’t necessarily a mark of genius either) and at worst, a slightly better version of The Offspring.
The band has slowly been working to build up a reputation for doing new things however, and regardless of whether or not they’re perfectly original or lacking in raw emotion, they’ve succeeded in finding an audience. Overtime, while catering to this market, the group has been playing with increasing the complexity of their songwriting alongside bringing in new production techniques and instruments. On this album in particular, a variety of synths and electronic production elements have been utilized to double down on the band’s attempt at a gothic element. With a dark, “Stranger Things”-esque scoring opening and closing several tracks, the album does to some degree succeed in creating a dark, foreboding atmosphere. This combines well with the slower, gloomier tracks on the album, and gives me the sense that the band is attempting at a prog-rock angle on this album as well. Additionally, while these two new additions to the band’s catalogue of styles and sounds do send the tone of the album in a noticeably different direction, the classic, catchy guitar-riff based tracks of previous QOTSA albums are still present.
Though all of these elements do not mesh perfectly together — the synthesized segments opening and closing several tracks clash in particular with more upbeat, distortion heavy tracks, creating a very mixed atmosphere — they do demonstrate that the band isn’t out of tricks, and still has room to grow. I found myself enjoying the latter half of the album substantially more than the first, and was genuinely impressed by the amount of songwriting maturity displayed. If anything will help create more memorable songs, it’s continued experimentation with these different genres and production elements.
Granted, my old issues with QOTSA are still there; just because I enjoyed this album more than others doesn’t mean that they’re completely off the hook. The emotional element of the album still feels mostly absent. Again, there is no deeper connection with the songs for me. Lyrical content considered, perhaps other listeners will get something from it, but “Villains” still lacked the emotional punch that would cultivate a deeper admiration of the band for me. Further, even with only nine songs on the album, most of them were still fairly forgettable. The sound on this album as a whole stands out when compared with prior albums, but the individual songs have that same nasty habit of blurring together slightly.
On the whole however, I was pleasantly surprised by “Villains.” It’s not factory churned music served with a side of “I can’t believe it’s not The Offspring.” Queens of the Stone Age make a genuine attempt to evolve their sound on this album, and are working toward becoming yet another name on the list of music icons. They’re not there yet, but they’re inching their way closer, and this album shows definite progress.
