The ninth studio album from alt-rock veterans Queens Of The Stone Age, ‘Perfecth’ is a concept album centred on love. But not the glamorous parts. There are no soppy ballads here, no rom-com laughs, and if you listen hoping for lusty, hard-rock bangers – such as ‘Go With The Flow’ – you will be disappointed.
‘It’s Only Love’ creeps us into the record, as train horns and swirling wind give the track a cinematic feel – a rainy railway at night. Late into the track, a string section begins to play us out, until Josh Homme comes back to end it with “a twisted rope I’m hanging on, It’s only love” before we are seemingly hit by a train in the track’s visceral end. It is a twistedly beautiful start to the album, before the vibes quickly switch to the catchiest outing of the record, ‘Insignificant Other’. While it is a fantastic track, with some quintessentially Homme wordplay, it does feel that at almost six minutes it’s slightly long for the album’s most accessible moment.
‘Where The Goth Girls At?’ is the closest we get to a straight rock banger over the album’s course. With the standout drumming performance from complementing a brilliantly dark and heavy riff. The highlight of this song is the distorted and overdriven outro behind Homme’s cries of “So don’t chase them all away”. The standout track of the album ‘Mono’ is best listened to through headphones, given the panning work on it. It is unlike anything previously heard from the band, or maybe from anybody. The end of this track is simply nightmarish, akin to an incredibly well-written horror film, as it seems to feature a vocal performance of someone waking up from a horrific dream, dying, or something in between. Allowing the listener some time to regather their senses and recover from the previous track, ‘From The Cliff’ sounds like a collaboration between early and , behind beautiful lyrics: “all we have to do is a leap of faith from the cliff of love into the blue”.
A brilliant Bowie-esque track, ‘Sunday’ – originally performed by – comes before the funnest moment on the record, ‘Easy Street’, which is full of tongue-in-cheek lyrics and wordplay. “I don’t believe in luck, so you can have mine”, “you drive me crazy for sure, but I can do that myself”, “drinking don’t help but it sure blocks out the help”. The clapping percussion, major key and use of falsetto give the track a much more easygoing and lighthearted vibe than most of the album. But it is a welcome break, and contains just as much meaning.
The record’s closing track, ‘Run Away From The Mob’, appears to be a slight diversion from the usual theme of the message, as it seems to centre on mob mentality, cancel culture and self-destruction. Yet, on deeper examination, it can be taken as a commentary on inner dialogue and the fight to love oneself. “In my heart, forevermore, always with me, I’m right there wherever you are.” Homme wails on the track’s outro atop a hard-hitting instrumental, backed by a brutal drum beat from longtime collaborator Dave Grohl, who makes his sole appearance on the record. It’s a fittingly cathartic way to end a record which encapsulates such a huge emotional spectrum.
Queens’ records tend to get better the more time you spend on them; this one appears it will be no different. It is far from easy listening and is at times a painfully emotional experience, but there is beauty in and between the layers. This album, approached with an open mind and given time, will offer something more on every listen.
8/10