QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE – In Times New Roman

Six years have passed since their last album “Villians”. With the album at that time QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE brought some swing to their own created genre. On June 16th, 2023 the wait is finally over. With “In Times New Roman” the band, which was founded in 1996, is releasing their eighth studio album on all platforms.

QOTSA bring us ten new songs and we want to take the time to really enjoy the album and listen carefully here and there.

Obscenery

The first thing we hear is an extremely distorted lead guitar riff with lots of delay on top, followed by a second hard distortion guitar that responds QOTSA-style to the first riff. The bass grooves in dull, distortion guitar again and the drums start. Dry and cool, Josh begins to sing in his unmistakable style, accompanied by the typical asynchronous guitar rhythms. We dived into the middle of the world of QOTSA. With a “Hurrah!” we jump into the chorus, the guitars get darker again, the guitar delay mixes in constantly and Jon Theodore changes the beat and constantly bangs the bell on his ride cymbal while Josh alternates between his mixed voice and swinging back and forth with his falsetto. At this point, the backing vocals come in for the first time and ensure the harmonies in the voice in the right places.
Now it gets weird, momentum is taken out and the strings join in with a psycho-thriller melody. Then the rock instruments rejoin and the vocals pick up again in a sort of post-chorus verse. After that, Michael Shuman’s thumping bass grooves along and accompanies the second verse – second chorus and that’s it.

Paper Machete

Distorted guitar rhythms, a straight drum beat and Josh’s falsetto vocals get going. Completely different mood than the first song. “Paper Machete” motivates to shake along and convinces with a catchy guitar rhythm, tight drums and melodic vocals. In between, Troy announces himself and pulls up his lead guitar with a few licks. „The truth is just a peace of Clay“ second verse and it slowly builds towards bridge and solo. In Bridge the distorted bass grooves lazily along and Troy delivers one of his signature guitar solos with more ingenious distortion. Finally, the whole band builds the song up again before it all fades away in a rhythmic instrumental outro.

Navigate Space

Stoner Rock ala QOTSA at its best. The guitars and drums are pounding straight down and the bass, again with plenty of distortion this time, joins the party with smooth licks. Slowly Josh starts to sing, followed by backing vocals, while the bass is still grooving nicely. In the chorus, the lead guitar dominates in addition to the vocals with a unique sound and yet relatively simple riff, which fills the whole room. And then it’s smooth again in the second verse. In the solo, two guitars battle each other at the same time, once in the treble and once in the middle (mixed brilliantly), while the bass continues to groove infinitely well. Towards the end, the band tunes into their distinctive spooky howling chant and ends the song.

Time & Place

Tik, Tak, Tak – Tik, Tak, Tak, the guitars tell us, before Theodore and Michael sit down in the middle of the bar with the drums and the bass and start grooving slightly against the guitar and pull the song forward. Josh Homme joins in softly and in the verse Troy’s heavily distorted lead guitar comes through nicely with clean licks. As the song progresses, the melody becomes clearer and different sounds mix, as well as a muted Schrabbl guitar in the background, giving the song some extra spice. The guitar solo shouldn’t be missing, of course, straight forward at the beginning, but then noisey from the left and right. There’s a rhythm change from the drums in the bridge, but Troy and Dean on the guitars stay true to their beat from start to finish. Varied from start to finish without ever becoming abusive.

Made To Parde

A dirge for all the corporate slaves of the world… You’re lucky to be part of the team, but if you want to go far you better shut up and do as we say… Complete sacrifice to the company for supposed fame and good money. how long can you stand it “I did not notice the weight of the chains til they were cut from me”.. The monotonous rhythm poundes heavily, giving the feeling of endless, pointless torture. After the first chorus, the keyboard plays us another ironic friendly melody, as if saying “Put a good face on the bad game”. The lines „Kill the very last whale aboard a yacht of fur” are clearly underscored with deep rap from the backing vocals. Except for the final song on the album, this is actually the longest.

What the Peehole Say

What a pun/pun – peehole = people. Josh is back in full swing, poking fun at society in his own unique poetic style. As an analogy, he takes the well-known figures of good and evil: the wolf, the sheep, the angel and tells a story that every listener can probably interpret for themselves. The story is of course accompanied by the QOSTA sound that we love.

Sicily

Snaps, bangs on glass and the bass comes out – and then again Josh in falsetto, who makes us feel like we’re at the end. The song drags along quietly in the first few seconds, until the concentrated power of the keyboards and synthesizer starts to drag us down. Also with “Sicily”, QOTSA let us feel in their distinctive style that something is wrong and the world is cursed and we are trapped in a nightmare.

Straight Jacket Fitting

Here the end of the album is heralded, but not so soon yes, it’s on again „Long Slow Goodbye“. The consistent instruments, the cursed synth, the band’s chilling howling provide the perfect atmosphere to drift away. Time to pour yourself a glass of whiskey, get something ready to smoke – sit back and relax. With soft sounds of acoustic guitars, a calm bass and very soft drums we disappear.

Conclusion

With „In Times New Roman” QOTSA have set a new milestone in their long band history. Even after all these years you ask yourself, how can a band sound like that and how can you further develop and refine this style. But Josh, Troy and Co. show us that it’s possible. The ingenious group has developed further and created an absolutely coherent album. The extensive sounds are perfectly mixed and the rhythms, licks and solos are superbly arranged. This album would be worth playing live in its entirety. Hopefully we don’t have to wait 20 years for it. In the words of Dave Ctaching: „It’s been a good night…Not Saying good night, just sayin!”

Tracklist „In Times New Roman“:

1. Obscenery
2. Paper Machete
3. Negative Space
4. Time & Place
5. Made to Parade
6. Carnavoyeur
7. What the Peephole Say
8. Sicily
9. Emotion Sickness
10. Straight Jacket Fitting
Total playing time: 46:19

Band-Links:

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE – In Times New Roman

LineUp:

Josh Homme (Guitar, Vocals)

Troy Van Leeuwen (Lead Guitar, Keyboard, backing Vocals)

Michael Shuman (Bass, Keyboard, Backing Vocals)

Dean Fertita (Guitar, Keyboard, Backing Vocals)

Jon Theodore (Drums, percussion)

10

…

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