ALBUMS
Desert-rock superstars return to reclaim their crown on album number eight.
There’s a real sense of digging deep into the Californian desert sands to rediscover the roots of Queen Of The Stone Age on In Times New Roman; a desire to reclaim the magic that made them so special and so insanely cool when they broke through with the timeless Rated R at the turn of the century. It’s six years since their last album, Villains, which was produced by pop-funk superstar Mark Ronson. With their new album they’ve left the celebrity schoolyard behind – it’s just the band, producing their own work from frontman Josh Homme’s own studio.
Getting into the bunker and away from outside influences was absolutely the right thing to do, because this is the most vital Queens Of The Stone Age have sounded in years, effortlessly exuding that singular switchblade cool of theirs. They’ve always excelled at creating a sense of danger, of something violent about to kick off in the dead of night, and that is heightened to electrifying heights here. Lead single is the most straight-ahead song on the album, an instantly recognisable QOTSA peacock
