Debuting with Sleaze: Queens of the Stone Age

SCORE: 93/100

Queens of the Stone Age's debut is one I've been meaning to get to for a while now - and the fact that they had their sound down this well for their first album is an impressive feat. It may be slightly rough around the edges; but there's no better introduction to their sound than this one. This was an incredible way for them to present themselves during the earliest roots of their career as a band, and the result is a striking debut that leaves the band off with a long-lasting impression. It's clear that they had their sound polished and where they wanted to go down, and they managed to pull it off very well for a debut. It may not be as polished as some of their later, more renowned work - but this is a striking beginning. 

There's a sense of sleaze, a sense of indecency that manages to be muddled through memorable guitar riffs and stoner grooves that make this album feel like a much more in-depth result of the stoner rock genre and its many forms. The songs are consistent and feel like an immersive project - coming together with ease and making sure that they reign in enough variety while still having a deeply cohesive sound at their core. In turn, 'Queens of the Stone Age' makes for a gorgeous album - although not as memorable or catchy as some of their other projects - this album has its moments and works best as a front-to-back experience; but some songs will leave you craving even more from them in the best way possible, with tracks like 'Regular John' and 'If Only' being particular highlights; not just from the album, but from the band's discography.

Josh Homme managed to almost be a one-man-band for this album, with Alfredo Hernández playing the drums and Homme taking over the rest of the album's instrumental duties as well as playing the part of vocalist (which he would continue to do). His laid back, twang-filled voice is instantly recognizable, and it's one of the leading factors in the band's unique sound that would come to be well known, with this album acting as a sort of backbone for what was to come for them in the near future. 

The rough, jagged, distorted guitar of this album is something that you can't get quite like this anywhere else; not from any other band. The material here is all consistently strong and enjoyable, and it all comes together into one impressive project. When the instruments are shown off the most they are shown off to their absolute rawest, highest potential - and the clearest example of this manages to reside on 'Hispanic Impressions', the first and only instrumental-only track that serves as a divider between tracks that breaks up the album very, very well. It has a lowdown, gritty sound that makes you feel every note, and the atmosphere is truly striking. 

The laid back sound of this album manages to still have enough grit, charm, and charisma to make it not seem like a work that is slacking in its nature - not even close. Instead, it feels like something so masterfully, yet easily created, something that came together through lazy grooves that were expanded upon and built up into something much more meaningful, something with memorable, lasting, stretchy riffs, something with stellar drumming while still building this sense of laze that only a band like QOTSA could pull off like this. It's wildly ambitious for a debut while still feeling mainly palatable - and it feels like yet another essential look at stoner rock in its rawest entirety. There's a sense of alternative braggadocio to this album that you won't find anywhere else, and the lazy sound of the genre manages to be structured into something much more full - something with more depth than expected to such a high degree it's near-impossible to ignore.