Queens of the Stone Age – Era Vulgaris: Leaked
It’s standard procedure for an album to be leaked at least two weeks before retail nowadays. Era Vulgaris isn’t due to hit stores until June 12th, but I’ve already listened to it a handful of times. Unfortunately, the album is arguably more uneven than any of their previous efforts. It has Josh Homme retreating back to his Rated R form and adding more of the quirkiness that he explored in Lullabies to Paralyze. And while I love Rated R, a lot of the songs on this album just don’t have the chill factor of the tracks on Rated R nor the rocking-with-your-balls out feel of Songs for the Deaf. Of course, there’s exceptions – most notably “Sick, Sick, Sick” and “Run Pig Run” – but even these tracks have something that just irks me the wrong way and aren’t quite as awesome all the way through as the best songs on their previous albums. Although, “Into the Hollow” and “Make It Wit Chu” are both definitely very cool tracks along the line of “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret”. To wrap up the album, “River in the Road” and especially “Run Pig Run” rock harder than the rest of the album combined, even though the latter has a disconcerting bridge. (“Running Joke” is included in the torrent I downloaded, but it’s really a UK bonus track)
If it seems like I’m conflicted in my assessment of this album, well…it’s because I am. There’s plenty of stuff to enjoy here, but there’s definitely some weird, subpar parts mixed in and unfortunately these two ingredients mix together on the same track a good amount of the time. Two of the songs I haven’t mentioned that rock and are actually good for their entire length are “Misfit Love” and “3′s & 7′s” – both could easily be the next single. My favorite song on the album is probably “River in the Road” though.
By the way, here’s the torrent link I used: http://www.mininova.org/tor/719005 Unfortunately, there’s a few skips, so scout around if you know what you’re doing and want a perfect version. If you want to complete the UK version of the album, here’s a link to a high-quality version of “Era Vulgaris” (the song): http://www.mininova.org/tor/719361
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