Them Crooked Vultures [CD]

If I'd written this review after the first spin I probably would have given the album 2 stars. However, I've persevered and I'm glad I did. This is a great album but takes a long time to get into. I seem to recall this being the case with most QOTSA stuff (especially the last one 'Era Vulgaris'). There's some great riffs and some unconvential chord changes which pay off with repeated listens, just don't expect to enjoy it that much the first time around.

Some of the blackest and most wretched moments in rock history can be located in the formation of super groups in the 70s and 80s. Anyone remember Beck, Bogart and Appice, The Firm or Asia? If the answer is "no" you should breath deeply and in from a sense of gratitude offer to do some pro bono work for a local charity. The theory was simple. Put together what were very accomplished and adept muso's and hey presto they will record a brilliant album. Not likely is the response, indeed as the NME as rather colourfully put it "Having a bunch of minted fret w**kers get together and knock off some tunes between hairdresser and spa appointments is never, ever going to trump a band of hungry 22-year-olds who've grown up together and spent years honing their art while surviving on dog-ends and cold pizza". Velvet Revolver was the most recent abomination to emerge from this genre and thus it begs the question whether the portents are good for Them Crooked Vultures?

The answer of course is yes. Josh Homme of QOTSA, Dave Grohl of Nirvana, Foo Fighters and QOTSA and the "quiet one" John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin are by any standards on top of their game. But more than this Grohl and Homme have regularly played together especially on the Queens brilliant album "Songs for the Deaf". After being the powerhouse behind Sir Percy Plant and Jimmy Page, I suspect that John Paul Jones could twang an elastic band and make it sound great. Thus these are musicians coming together for the joy of it rather to trying to use the collective muscle of their respective names to generate interest. They don't need to do that, what they do need to do is produce an album that does them justice.

On balance Them Crooked Vultures performs this feat well. The template is hard rock blues so no surprises here. But as the Queens of the Stone Age prove when done properly this can be thrilling, powerful and fun. Grohl can thump the drums nearly as well as John Paul Jones former sparring partner John Bonham while Josh Homme writes hard rock songs which have dangerous hints of melody (and in his spare time produces the Arctic Monkeys) and John Paul Jones is .......John Paul Jones.

The album starts with three absolute corkers, namely "No one loves me neither do I", "Mind Eraser Mind Chaser" and the great single "New Fang". This is hard rock in the vein of Led Zep and the Raconteurs. In terms of "No One" at about 2.45 minutes the song breaks into such a monstrous riff that I thought the CD had accidently switched to Physical Graffiti! Yes it's been done before but when it is this good it remains one of the great rock disciplines. All in all an excellent start but the best song is yet to come. "Elephants" is probably the album highlight. It is an old fashion hard rock beast monster which gives you a migraine from shaking your head around so much. Yes it could be straight from a QOSTA album but its pure class. A couple of gripes next. Scumbug Blues sounds a bit too much like Cream to be true while "Bandoliers" steals a riff from somewhere which is driving me mad in trying to identify. Some of the songs could have also done with a bit of editing and "Interlude with Ludes" could fill potholes.

"Warsaw" however has a dirty and sexy feel and a brilliant vocal by Homme. "Gunman" is excellent while the 7 minute plus epic "Spinning in the Daffodils" that closes the album might be "Kashmir" for the noughties ending with a Page style guitar coda. On the scale of invention and originality this album would not score high but judged for what it is a namely a stellar hard rock album it ticks all the boxes.

(4.5 stars) Them Crooked Vultures, comprised (as you already know) of JPJ, Dave Grohl and Josh Homme, have made arugably the best rock album of the decade. The music twists and turns between the direct, hard hitting songs reminiscent of Qotsa's prime and the sprawling psychedelia of some of Led Zeppelin's more overlooked songs.

The first thing that you notice is Dave Grohl's drumming, which is phenomenal as expected - he is undoubtedly at his best when behind the kit (it's easy to forget he was Nirvana's drummer) as opposed to fronting a band. Picking out highlights is very difficult. Opener 'No One Loves Me...' builds and builds until erupting into a crunching riff, one of Homme's best, and finishing at breackneck speed. Single 'New Fang' sounds unremarkable on first listen, but it (like the album as a whole) rewards numerable listens; it's jagged structure compliments Homme's motormouth vocals(sick, sick, sick springs to mind) perfectly. As a sidenote, Homme's vocals on the album are a triumph; he is able to thrillingly switch between piercing falsetto ('Scumbag Blues') and sleazy drawl ('Gunman'). Anyone who was slightly disappointed by Qotsa's last effort, Era Vulgaris, such as myself will revel in Homme's musicianship on this album as he is back to doing what he did best for Kyuss and does for Qotsa - produce riffs and hooks that alternate between the melodically heavy and the technically difficult. JPJ's bass lines are rumble along with the rhythm ('Reptiles', 'Caligulove') or pull the song along with electrifying results and he can also be found on the keys on several songs which adds a layer of interesting depth. The album itself is long by modern standards; five songs go over 5 minutes. These songs are all epic, swerving pieces of music that capture the feel of the album as a whole. For periods they hit hard before slipping into psychedelic dream-like passages. No where is this more clear than 'Warsaw...' and 'Elephants'; two standouts. Yet a testament to the group's ability is the way in which they can make the short songs just as memorable; 'Reptiles' thunders with a balance of heaviness and melody that is really how 'Run Pig Run' should have sounded and 'Mind Eraser...' skips along with squalling guitars and the added bonus of Grohl on back-up vocals. Lyrics are probably the last thing anyone will notice at first, such is the overwhelming presence of the music and vocals, but Homme comes up with some gems ('Dead End Friends'' thoughtul life as the road metaphor sits nicely against the sexual missives for which he has carved something of a reputation for Qotsa; "She said, 'I got a beautiful place to put your face' - and she was right").

Drawbacks? Admittedly there are a couple. 'Dead End Friends' doesn't quite hit you with the almighty force you would expect if you have seen the live version; the guitar sounds pared down. As for weak songs, there are none that are unlistenable but 'Interludes with Ludes' doesn't quite sit right with the propulsive rhythm of the other songs. Perhaps another of their songs that was played live, 'Highway One', would have been a better choice. And, if we're being picky, it would be nice to have a couple more short songs to break up what Homme dubbed the album's 'battleships' (songs over 5 mins).

Those niggles aside, it has to be put in context what this band has done, however. The 2000s have been starved of clear rock classics (The Strokes' 'Is this it?', Mastodon's 'Leviathan', Qotsa's own 'Rated R' and 'SFTD', White Stripes' 'White Blood Cells', TV on the Radio's '...Cookie Mountain'; any more?) when compared with the 1990s and to have this behemoth of a record appear is an unexpected bonus. While all three are great musiciains there was never a guarantee this would work (think every other 'supergroup'...), which makes this achievement even more impressive. While not an album to be compared, as some were expecting it to be, with rock's all-time greats it nonetheless packs a punch like few albums have so far in this century. It's unclear whether TCV will make another album, but if they do it will be an exciting time for a rock scene which is desperately in need of a leader. And undoubtedly, given the talent involved, there is potential for a classic album.