Album #10: Queens of the Stone Age, "Rated R" (2000)

I first bought this album roughly six months after its release, knowing only a little bit about Josh Homme's previous band (Kyuss), and not really into the so-called Stoner Rock scene. In fact, the only reason I'd picked up the album in the first place was because an article about Stoner Rock in an issue of Guitar World mentioned Kyuss and Josh Homme's work with his new band, Queens of the Stone Age.
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I think everyone nowadays is familiar with Queens of the Stone Age (or, as they're more commonly known in print, QOTSA) - but they are familiar with a different beast than the one present on this album. This was an album that bridged Homme's fuzzier, riff-driven guitar work from Kyuss with the pop/rock sounds found on later QOTSA albums. While I'm sure a lot of mainstream music fans will disagree with me, I still hold that Rated R is the best QOTSA album out there - in fact, I sometimes think it is the only QOTSA album that is good overall.

The album has much of that riff-driven, fuzzed-up hard rock sound that is essential for what is commonly known as "Stoner Rock" - groovy beats that draw equally from Led Zeppelin, Delta Blues, R&B, Black Sabbath, early 1980s punk, and underground Grunge. But it is also more accessible, with a very polished quality to the recordings (rare in the world of Stoner Rock, where even the major records seemed to be produced on a shoestring budget). Many times, the Stoner sound is dropped in favour of mainstream rock - "The Feel Good Hit of the Summer", for example, has a guitar sound that is familiar to any rock fan, even going so far as to be accompanied by a driving piano beat that always reminds me of Little Richard. Only without, you know, the veiled references to Butt Sex.

The album goes from that super-charged opener (which consists of a single line, repeated over and over again - "Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, Marijuana, Ecstacy and Alcohol", and the chorus of "C-c-c-c-Cocaine!"), into the more groove-driven "The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret". After a more traditional Stoner Rock style piece ("Leg of Lamb"), we get "Auto Pilot", a sort of Drug Ballad with a chorus that reminds me of early Beatles, with the verses sounding sort of like acid blues.

As an aside, this whole album is about drugs. If the title didn't warn you, the song titles should. Most are about taking drugs in one way or another - "Feel Good Hit of the Summer", "Leg of Lamb", "Auto Pilot", "Better Living Through Chemistry", "Tension Head", and "I Think I Lost My Headache" all involve drug use in one way or another. And I'd be willing to bet that band was stoned out of their minds through the recording of much of this record. I can visualize Josh Homme lying sprawled on a couch, guitar in his lap, staring vacantly into space before saying "Hey, guys? This album needs to, like, have a song with a japanese school girl singing along...".

And you know Mr. Homme is big on the drugs. I mean, take a look at the man's wardrobe choices.

The album fluctuates in its middle, going from a power ballad ("In the Fade", sung by ex-Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan) to a rhythmic punk piece ("Tension Head") to a striking acoustic guitar and piano duet ("Lightning Song"). It finishes with the occasionally rocky, occasionally bizarre "I Think I lost My Headache", which begins with a confusing time signature and devolves into bizarre jazz-like guitar stylings and wailing saxophones. The song is apparently Josh Homme's favourite on the album; I've always liked the first half of the song, but been annoyed by the second half. Imagine a good-old-fashioned rock song getting interrupted by a jazz band that's lost its sense of rhythm. And imagine slipping said jazz band some acid. That is pretty much how the last half of the song plays out.

So, why does this album need to be on your shelf?

To begin with, it's an example of modern rock at its finest, unburdened by record producers trying to create a radio-worthy single. After this album, the studio heads were much more attentive, and it shows in the band's next release - the financially successful Songs for the Deaf that plays it much more safe. And suffers as a result - but only in comparison to Rated R (it's still a great album).

Much like later QOTSA albums, Rated R is an amalgamation of talented musicians - QOTSA has never had a consistent lineup, which is one of their strengths as a band; there's never enough time for any one particular lineup to create a consistent QOTSA "sound". This collusion of musical minds can be heard in the versatility of the album's sound, and a feeling of experimentation pervades the entire piece. While I'm not a huge fan of the song, I have to admire the fact that the band was able to release such an unconventional song as "I Think I Lost my Headache"; I don't think that later producers for the band would allow such a release on the album.

Which is why this album remains QOTSA's finest - no one really expected QOTSA to be as successful as they would become. In many ways, it reminds me of Dark Side of the Moon in that regard - an album that would serve to elevate a B-list band into the big leagues.