Rated Rx [Deluxe Edition]

This is exactly how i felt ten years ago when Queens of The Stone Age released their second album "Rated R", to understand why you have to go back to the year 2000 when the music world was all about Britney and boy bands and mainstream rock was dominated by loads of nu metal clones, so along with A Perfect Circle's "Mer De Noms", QOTSA's Rated R was a breath of fresh air, real rock played by real musicians! Now ten years later its being released as a two disc Deluxe Edition with a bonus disc of B sides and live performances.

Unlike their self titled debut album which was all written and performed by Josh Homme, "Rated R" was performed by a full by band with loads of guest spots as well. Most famously of course was the addition of Nick Oliveri on bass and vocals. Opening track Feel Good Hit Of the Summer starts of with Oliveri's driving bass and a name check of class A Drugs, and also has Judas Priest's Rob Halford on backing vocals, Josh has also stated this song was meant as a knife into the back of the neck of their stoner rock tag which he has always hated(totally agree with him on that one). The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret follows next and if anything shows the band's softer side! Former Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan makes his first appearance on lead vocals on the brilliant In The Fade, he also appears on the tracks "Auto Pilot", "Leg Of Lamb" and "I Think I Lost My Headache" providing backing vocals on those tracks, Lanegan has since of course gone on to appear on every QOTSA album since then, and even performed with the band on tour of this album as well as it's follow up "Songs For The Deaf", One of the real stand out tracks is "Better Living Through Chemistry" which is a song that takes the listener on a magical journey as it twists from mellow to heavy, the influence of Black Sabbath is there for everyone to hear!! The brilliant "Monsters In The Parasol" Which of course originally appeared on Desert Sessions 3&4(A Josh Homme side project where he heads out to the desert for a week with various musicans to record an album worth of material, many QOTSA songs began life as a Desert Sessions track)and features the brilliant line "Paul's sister an alien" and for even better effect listen to it through a pair of ear phones as you can hear Nick Oliveri vocal in the backround better.

Nick Oliveri plays a big part on this album singing on three songs(autopilot,quick and the pointless and tension head) and offers something different from Homme and Lanegan,His take of "The Quick & The Pointless" was famously done in one take and the song "Tension Head" was originaly titled "13th Floor" and appears on Nicks Band Mondo Generators debut album "Cocaine Rodeo" of course those of us that were lucky to see him perform with QOTSA before he got kicked out will testify to the fact that he gave the band a bit of danger, and his vocal performances are missed.

The second disc is made up of B sides that you may or may not own already, there is some good stuff here like the brilliant "Ode To Clarissa" as well as cover versions Never Say Never(romeo void) and Who'll be the next in line(the kinks) as well as the clever You're So Vague which is their version of Carly Simon's You're So Vain(not a cover version). There is also a live recording from Reading 2000 which features songs from their debut self titled album as well, and will have you wishing to see QOTSA live as soon as possible!

This Deluxe Edition comes at a great time(They play Reading festival 10 years after their 1st appearance) and of course it shows that despite alot of line up changes QOTSA were built to last and just beginning on their journey as most of the other fads from 2000 died away quickly. The album might be Rated R but shouldn't be restricted from anyone, if you don't own the original get this now!!

Queens Of The Stone Age
Rated Rx (Deluxe Edition)
(Interscope 2000/2010)

A fantastic version of a fantastic album, with more or less everything you could wish for in a deluxe edition of a ten year old album. The brilliant 11 track album is isolated on CD1 whilst CD2 contains all 6 B-sides (unlike the previous UK special edition) like `Ode to Clarissa' and `Born To Hula' and the great 2000 Reading Festival appearance.

CD Rating *****

Get these too on CD:
Queens of the Stone Age
Songs for the Deaf

Hard to write a review of this kind of "must-to-have" masterpiece. I have to say that QOTSA Rated Rx Deluxe Edition album is very much worth of your money. Audio quality is good and package of is fine too. Good live songs and so on. Better review can be found in the internet :)