Album Review: Queens of the Stone Age - ‘Perfecth’

(Photo Credit: Andreas Neumann)

Alt-rock superstars Queens of the Stone Age are back with their latest, Perfecth this week! Lead by Josh Homme, the band also includes Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman, Dean Fertita, and Jon Theodore. The record spans nine tracks and touches on issues of love, including familial love and that found friendships as well as romantic love.

Homme discussed how the record was made in the spirit of the Japanese art form of Kintsugi. Kintsugi is the process of taking broken pottery and mending it into something new and beautiful. On this, Homme stated “Every song sounds like it's from a different zone…And that's on purpose, because it's trying to stitch together all these emotions revolving around love, lust, foolishness, and the sort of wisdom that comes as a gift from all that.” Further, the band recorded Perfecth across a smattering of cities, studios, and dates, as they didn’t want to rush the record, but rather let it gestate, until it was ready.

Perfecth opens with “It’s Only Love”, a more scaled back number than what we’re used to hearing from the desert rockers. It is hauntingly beautiful and features Homme’s signature vocals accompanied by strings and more in a methodically placed track which leaves you uncertain of where we may be heading, but definitely excited for the journey.

We move next into “Insignificant Other”, what the band terms as the “centerpiece” of Perfecth. This single features the band’s traditional distorted guitar that I cannot get enough of across their discography. It has some pretty cool highs and leads that move over the rhythm established by Homme and Co. This one is simply a winner and I loved how Homme’s vocals soared above the melody, moving between a falsetto with just the right amount of vibrato. There is a reason this is the lead single and I feel that “Insignificant Other” will take its place in the pantheon of Queens tracks that are beloved by fans.

Next up is “Where the Goth Girls At”, which is a song that feels both deliberate and chaotic. The rhythm is methodic and pointed, but also is accompanied by some leads that move a lighting pace about the track in a way that feels like it shouldn’t work but totally does. The song also features strings and a driven rhythm guitar which close out the song.

“Mono” has been labeled as Perfecth’s most “devastating” track. It’s stripped back and features some dynamic percussion, which is accompanied by Homme’s patented vocals. It also has some light leads and scaled back keys/organ. The song is about heartbreak and features some screaming from Homme and moves between mono and steel on the mix. “From the Cliffs of Love into the Blue” is a shorter acoustic number, which focuses a bit more on Homme’s vocals, which I personally loved. I felt he wasn’t trying to do too much here, but rather keep the stripped back tone that was established with “Mono”, the two fit so well together, and towards the end of the song, some keys come in that really drive the heartache home.

I have to touch on “Sunday” which features a songwriting assist from the legendary Iggy Pop. The guitars are lead by some frantic leads that accompany Homme’s vocals and a deliberate percussion section. “Easy Street” is up next, which was released as a single. This is one of my favorite tracks on the record, even though it doesn’t really feature the signature effects-driven rhythm guitar that Queens are known for. However, the acoustic guitar and duet style vocals with singer Nikki Lane just simply work. The song is introspective as well as Homme sings “Violence is never the answer you say, I question how he’s not been punched in the face. But I’m not like that anymore.” The song focuses on real life issues that have faced the band and continues a clarity from the band that have also been seen in some of Homme’s and Co.’s press appearances supporting the album.

The album is made in personal struggle and focuses on how imperfect we all are and how strange this life can be. The band uses the term “Perfecth” because they espouse that perfect isn’t real and certainly isn’t honest. Homme expands on this and notes “that title is funny when you're in a group, but it ain't so fucking funny when you're alone and you realize how imperfect everything is. It's the struggle.”

Perfercth is born from that struggle and soars from a newfound clarity for the band, molded by turmoil, but grateful for the journey we’re all on in life. Perfecth will soon take it’s rightful place among the band’s other LPs as beautiful, but aware of it’s cracks, like a statue you see in a museum that is beautiful, but also having cracks of imperfection like we all do. That is to say, I love this record because it’s simply honest and earnest as a musical effort from a band that continues to grow and develop even as veterans of the music scene.

While it feels almost sacralige to give a record about the imperfection of all and this life a perfect (or “perfecth”) score, I cannot deny the band here. Wow, this one is great, and might be my favorite record top to bottom that they have ever done.

Rating - 10/10