Them Crooked Vultures

You've undoubtedly heard of this collection and have probably heard raves about it before it even started. Even just a look at the album's wikipedia page will show a collection of reviews that are all in the 90th percentile. Don't worry. I'm not going to dash your dreams and really rebuke any of those praises. But I also don't mind saying that such universal accolades are more of an idea boner related to the company we're keeping.

Them Crooked Vultures is, of course, Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin's least laid member, John Paul Jones. Two guys who have achieved greatness fronting their own bands, and all of whom who have also sprinkled their career with enough off the cuff jamming and collaborating that each of their seats here are sure to be filled with supernatural ease. Now, I'm a rock guy; so what I hear is what I know of the participants. But even if you're too cool to have listened to Foo Fighters or Queens Of The Stone Age, you can still pretend that you're serving your indie cred hipness by relating this as a recall to Nirvana or Kyuss is some massive new Desert Session project that would only be more alternative is PJ Harvey were singing.

Point taken- we're all excited by the collaboration. How does it sound? They started off with the right idea: Make the first and the last songs the best ones.

The first track "No One Loves Me & Neither Do I" is absolutely vulgar, from the sick riff to the lecherous lyrics. It reminds me of Josh's other side of a side project, Eagles of Death Metal, except there the singer would be Jesse Hughes who would make it sound comical and fun, whereas Josh sings it straight up blasé, just like that asshole that you're probably fucking.

"Spinning In Daffodils" on the other hand is a heady lengthy jam, avoiding the trappings of success OR failure and just relishes in the experience of being high. (Drug references are abound on the record.)

With Josh leading the guitar and vocal, it sounds mostly like a Queens record than anything else. Fuzz toned '70s licks and powerhouse drums. You would be inclined when getting John Paul Jones in your band to just embrace everything Zeppelin, and the influence is there to be sure, but there's certainly no Plant ability in the group (thankfully) and versatility of Page is traded here for the Whole Lotta Love riff. Even when some organic orchestration is blended in from Jones, it's done as a subtle backing for the song than like Zeppelin, which would feature a more instrumental break.

In total, the trio absolutely plays great together (quartet live - shout out to the great Alain Johannes). Great stoner rock from great stoners. But let's be honest, take all those 90% reviews that we discussed before. Package the same songs in a QOTSA album with credits of: Written by Josh, guest drums by Dave, guest bass by John... and those reviews would get knocked down a point. The hype of the whole is greater than the sum of the songs. (3.5 of 5 stars)