Praise God, nothing’s as it seems…
“Keep Your Eyes Peeled”
I feel no shame re-using the picture from a previous article referring to QOTSA; it is the album cover, after all.
As I said before, QOTSA albums evoke a particular mood through their lengthy run-time, and then tend to infect you with that mood in the most addictive way possible. Still, six years seems a long time to wait between albums in the Internet age. Homme’s been plenty busy with Them Crooked Vultures (hey, if you got to be in a band with John Paul Jones, you might take a break too) and the re-release of the first Queens album, but new material’s been scarce since the release of Era Vulgaris.
I liked that one a whole lot, even if the critical and audience reception universally agreed that the formula felt tired. Homme tried to encapsulate the contradictory nature of a generation obsessed with fame, but unwilling to work for it, and for that it succeeded. In terms of creating adventurous songs, it faltered in execution. Many criticized Lullabies to Paralyze’s relative “softness” compared to a QOTSA with Nick Oliveri on bass, and EV appeared a direct attack on those claims. They created catchy robot rock all right, but without a soul.
…Like Clockwork, then, doesn’t fall anywhere near the vein of any projects done between that six year period. To use the popular vernacular of our time, ‘schizophrenic” describes it perfectly. A mix of classic Queens of the Stone Age with added complexities (“My God Is the Sun”) along with slow piano-driven ballads (“The Vampyre of Time and Memory”) and creepy Nine Inch Nails-inspired rock (“Keep Your Eyes Peeled”), …Like Clockwork bounces all over the place without a care in the world. The variety, odd distortion effects, and musical chops on display really makes one feel inadequate.
How do you even do that with guitars and rock instruments? Seriously, though some of the music gives you odes to classic rock in the most sarcastic and underhanded way possible (“I Sat By The Ocean”), and others give you that bizarro Homme falsetto and swagger (“Smooth Sailing”), many take this “hard/soft” dynamic to craft some of the most beautiful rock music I’ve ever heard. Take ‘Kalopsia”, for example; supposedly a term for viewing the world as more beautiful than it actually is, the song combines an absolutely sublime, majestic, and subtly uninviting verse structure with an explosion into complete chaos whenever the chorus comes out (with Trent Reznor, of course, sharing some of the vocal duties). It’s utterly insane and depraved, and it shouldn’t work at all, but it does.
Other songs try to “break the rules”, so to speak, such as “If I Had a Tail”. The constant “whomp-whomp” and Drive-esque serial killer vibe turn what could’ve been a generic rock’n’roll stomper into a crazy night trip. And if there’s anything that Homme’s post-Oliveri output tells us, his dark mind takes him into some rather wonderful places. Probably should have mentioned that Oliveri provided background vocals here – that could explain a lot!
Yet somehow, there’s plenty of room for contemplation and relaxing the boundaries of these exposes. Usually, QOTSA songs try for all-out audio assault…or at least Songs for the Deaf might lead you to believe at such. Yet I find this latest albums hearkens more to Rated R’s spaciness and Lullabies to Paralyze’s darkness, which allowed the songs to breath with unusual instrumentation and constant chord changes that go strange places. It’s nice to hear choral works in the background like in “Fairweather Friends”; it’s also hard to deny Elton John, Reznor, and Mark Lanegan’s combined contributions to the song (a “real queen”, as he’d put it), but each weaves their way into the distinctive Queens tapestry, and just as quickly fade into the wall of sound.
This seems most apparent to me on “I Appear Missing”, one of those notable Queens epics that extends a traditional rock’n’roll song past its song length into crazy territory. I’m not sure what makes this song so unbelievably catchy, but a six minute tune has no right to deserve that much replay. Like a long drive through a desert of no hope, yet resplendent in its descent of messed-up love long lost, it’s difficult to see what makes it wonderful without listening to it.
…Like Clockwork, the titular work played at the end, encapsulates the reason for this “schizophrenia” (I know it’s Multiple Personality Disorder, but roll with me):
Most of what you see my dear is purely for show
Because not everything that goes around comes back around you know
Holding on too long is just fear of letting go
Because not everything that goes around comes back around you know
One thing that is clear it’s all down hill from here
QOTSA’s latest provides a perfect set of contrasts; the lyrics constantly show a downward trend towards the despairing and inevitable: bad things will happen, and will continue to happen. What makes it so interesting, then, is that it is the first Queens record with feeling, ideas, and a distinct lack of sarcasm in many cases. What we see is what what get; there’s no gimmick here to rely on, just great songwriting and a set of life experiences that find their expression the only way the band knows how: through music.
While I’m not the one to say the tortured artist stereotype produces great music (I think it’s a load of bull, to be honest), life does inspire one to create in certain ways, even if the influence:work ratio doesn’t smoothly fit in a 1:1 ratio. Being clinically dead for a few seconds may affect you, after all. Or find that your former band, of which made an unspoken agreement to leave the rights to the name and the songs with yourself, decides to file for the trademarks and rights. It’s an album about hitting rock bottom, pretty much. The catchy music disguises a deep darkness and making sense of things – perhaps even on the side of those existential ideas that frighten most folk (Theology Gaming? No way! We love it!). It’s the first one they made that mentions God in such a direct sense, which surprised me (even with the status quo humorous innuendos which remain their trademark).
There’s much more seriousness to the work here – meaning, if you were a QOTSA fan before, you may not be anymore. This is a pretty radical reinvention; fans of old and new Queens may feel lost in the dust of this bizarre shift. Still, I’d call this one a grower. Like most of their albums, it really doesn’t make sense on first listen. Give it a few spins, however, and I think you’ll get what I mean. It’ll be my album of the year, but I’m already biased. Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories left me in the cold, so this more than makes up for it (better than disco muzak).
In sum, the Queens gives us a different side of themselves, and end up making one of their best albums. Surely it’ll take time to digest its true worth and validity, but I can say with certainty that I like it more than Era Vulgaris. Go buy it already! And also listen to it (Definitely NSFW in terms of the animation). So I leave you with the lyrics to The Vampyre of Time and Memory – it pretty much encapsulates the album’s mood:
I want God to come
And take me home
Coz I’m all alone in this crowd
Who are you to me?
Who am I supposed to be?
Not exactly sure anymore
Mmm where’s this going to?
Can I follow through?
Or just follow you, for a whileDoes anyone ever get this right?
I feel no loveAnd all confusion here
It is as I feared
The illusion that you feel is real
To be vulnerable is needed most of all
If you intend to truly fall apartYou think the worst of all
Is far behind
The Vampyre of time and memories, has died
I’ve survived, I speak. I breathe, I’m incomplete
I’m alive, hurray, you’re wrong again coz’ I feel no love
Does anyone ever get this right?Does anyone ever get this right?
I feel no love
I feel no love
