The new Queens of the Stone Age album, Era Vulgaris, is excellent.
Like a great dessert, it is slightly perverse, simple in its presentation and complex in its elaboration. Turnin on the Screw, the opening track, has a lengthy bridge that is spun cotton candy: both mindless and elaborate.
Josh Homme is one of the most versatile rock singers of our time as well as an inspired songwriter. And where other bands struggle to perform live – producing stale covers of their own material – Homme and his collaborators can dig deep into a track while performing in front of tens of thousands of spectators.