July 10, 2003 - Queens of the Stone Age are not what you would call a very consistent band. Excluding Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri, the band's members pretty much change from year to year and album to album. Their music styles are never the same for each album , or even for the songs on each album themselves. Their music can go anywhere, and that is perhaps what makes them in my mind the best active band in the world, and one of my favorite bands of all time.

Their first album, like their second album R, is in my mind a perfect if not very close to perfect album. There aren't any mediocre or bad songs, but beauty is also in the ear of the beholder. Someone who appreciates a wide variety of music such as me or is a Queens of the Stone Age fan will love this album to death.

Their music is varied, with songs that can be a little catchy to the public ("If Only"), songs that are a little bit strange and experimental ("I Was a Teenage Hand Model"), hard rock jams with no words or lyrics whatsoever ("Hispanic Impressions"), and some are blues-influenced ("Walkin' on the Sidewalks"). It would be unsettling for anyone who sticks to and only likes certain music from one genre because they would probably only like some of
the songs if any. Their lyrics aren't too deep, but who cares when the music is this good? When you have a breath of fresh air that this album was in 1998, the words are more an instrument than something to think about.

It's also a good thing that these songs are so varied, otherwise you would just seem to wait until there was another song and just be bored through the entire album. Those who are fans of Josh Homme's old band Kyuss and haven't heard of QOTSA (I hope both of you are reading this), you may be disappointed with the lack of testosterone and the different direction it leads to. With fans of Kyuss they have turned off, Queens have brought
different fans like me into the mix. In fact, they named the band Queens of the Stone Age because of the rednecks they saw at their Kyuss shows and they wanted the rednecks to say to their friends how cool this "Queens of the
Stone Age" band was. I know some people who called the band "Queers of the Stone Age" just by listening to the cd in school.

To wrap it up, if you are Queens of the Stone Age fan, buy this immediately, otherwise you should listen to it a bit first.

- Ben Thompson

Reader Score QotSA Fan: 9.5 / Average Joe 8.5

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