THEM CROOKED VULTURES 'THEM CROOKED VULTURES'

THEM CROOKED VULTURES THEM CROOKED VULTURES (DGC/Sony) A decent album, crushed under the weight of expectation. 3/5 Set to polarise opinions like the current policies of New Labour, the continued occupation of Afghanistan and Marmite, the sound of critical knife sharpening is heavy on the air with the release of Them Crooked Vultures’ debut album. Of course, when you’re Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and you join forces with Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme and John fucking Paul fucking Jones of Led fucking Zeppelin to create an album, the tag of ‘supergroup’ is going to be double-edged sword. A big fucking double-edged sword. Let’s be honest: while the level of expectation for this has been through the roof, the end product is never going to live up to what we believe it should sound like in our imaginations. However, ‘Them Crooked Vultures’ is by no means all blues and bad news. Punching like Mike Tyson in his prime, the dynamic duo of Grohl (who’s handling skins duties) and Jones (bass) deliver uppercuts and haymakers of rhythm that’ll leave your ears punch drunk and reeling, most notably on opener ‘No One Loves Me & Neither Do I’, providing Homme with a platform to spit hot licks and snake-hipped lyrics. ‘Mind Eraser, No Chaser’ helter skelters its way through four-minutes of driving dirty rock ‘n’ roll, as Grohl and Jones play tag with Homme’s elasticated guitar line, meeting halfway through for some back and forth vocals between Grohl and Homme. It’s only let down by the parping coda, which jars with the speaker-wrecking that preceded it. Elsewhere, the melodies on the likes of ‘New Fang’ are inspired, standing shoulder to shoulder with the best work that Grohl and Homme have produced in Foos and Queens while ‘Scumbag Blues’ takes a Southern boogie and meshes it together with Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition’. However, elsewhere the influence of the trio’s ‘day bands’ is all too evident on the likes of ‘Elephants’ and the bloated closer ‘Spinning In Daffodils’, while ‘Dead End Friends’ sounds like a hornless version of Rocket From The Crypt’s ‘On A Rope’. Regardless, ‘Them Crooked Vultures’ is, for the most part, a very decent album. But will that be enough? Jim Sharples TRACKLISTING No One Loves Me & Neither Do I Mind Eraser, No Chaser New Fang Dead End Friends Elephants Scumbag Blues Bandoliers Reptiles Interlude With Ludes Warsaw Or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up Caligulove Gunman Spinning In Daffodils Themcrookedvultures.com

 

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