Queens of the Stone Age – "In Times New Roman..."

The long, hard road out of Hell

Yes, I know: It's been three months since this album came out. Shut up, I'm traveling.

Anyway, here's another band in the long line of otherwise good bands in whom I nonetheless lost interest somewhat. Queens of the Stone Age didn't surpass themselves after their magnum opus "Songs for the Deaf" (2002), the follow-up "Lullabies to Paralyze" ('05), devoid of any lingering singles, being a bit too spaced out, and "Era Vulgaris" ('07) just being a bit too all-round weird.

During the last four years, QotSA frontman and mastermind Josh Homme has been through more shit than the rest of us, legal child custody battles and mutual restraining orders between him and his ex-wife flanking a cancer diagnosis and the tragic deaths of close friends Mark Lanegan and Taylor Hawkins (2 x R.I.P.!). And then, of course, there was that whole end-of-the-world thing depriving his band of touring and recording as well.

But as we all know, few things make for more inspired songwriting than tough times. And the result, "In Times New Roman...", is vintage-QotSA, if there was ever such a thing.

The keyword for this album is contrast. Because on one hand, we're back to those stiff, robotic riffs that have long become a trademark of Homme's. But at the same time, many of the songs have an almost liquid vibe to them, the otherwise simple 4/4 times being surprisingly hard to follow with all their irregular fills and counter-rhythmic guitar figures. This is most prevalent in "Time and Place", its main figure consisting of three simple notes, but spanning a goddamn 10-bar period. (At least that's how I've counted it; I could very well be wrong.)

Some records (like, say, this one) simply require several spins. Because not only in this particular genre, but with this particular band, it can be hard to determine where to focus. Which is part of the whole deal.

The same contrast goes for the lyrics. The subject matter of the songs, not surprisingly, often sees Homme confronting those vicious curveballs that life's been throwing him lately. In the laid-back "Carnavoyeur", he calmly accepts our human mortality, and the uptempo "Paper Machete" sees him hurling some scathing rhetorics at aforementioned ex-wife. But the lyrics are permeated by a level of puns and wordplay on par with any decent hip-hop album.

Indeed, half the song titles are portmanteaus. And even when lamenting the sad state of things, Homme often gets clever on a level that would impress a Tom Lehrer. Not the least of all, this goes for the bitter conclusion, "Straight Jacket Fitting", dealing with human dysfunctionality and madness by use of Dylanesque stream-of-consciousness and Morrisonesque apocalypse:

Oh, piss on the clergy,
The new age heathens
The old guard, avant guard,
TechnoloJesus
The hand-made jury,
Cage-free corporate raiders
Patriotic, probiotic
Deletist eracists
The world!
She don't need saving
Except from you and me
And our misbehaving
To face down your demons
You gotta free them
To seize all your demons
Carpe demon

... And then, the coda contrasts a warm, acoustic dreadnought guitar with a slightly disturbing pedal steel lead. We're back in that Californian desert where it all started. But we're not the same.

Another contrast to all this, of course, is the rock'n'roll in the songs themselves – which in itself contrasts all those quirky elements that were always an integral part of the band, no matter its current line-up. Homme's vocals are often as deliberately campy as always, like in lead single "Emotion Sickness" which, in all its machine-like riffing and apparently irregular meter, is anything any of us could ever ask of a new QotSA tune.

Also easily recognizable is the lazy shuffle of "Made to Parade", with that weird, ever-pervasive, almost howling middle-tone lead. Yes, lazy and weird are also keywords here in this whole stoner rock thing that Homme himself helped invent. The whole thing rocks, but it can't very well be QotSA without all these little peculiar idiosyncrasies.

"In Times New Roman..." features those idiosyncrasies in plenty. And in conclusion, I gotta make it clear that it's not only my constant traveling that's delaying my reviews; it's also the fact that some records (like, say, this one) simply require several spins. Because not only in this particular genre, but with this particular band, it can be hard to determine where to focus. Which is part of the whole deal.

Rating: 4.5 out of 6

Genre: Stoner rock
Release date: 16/6/2023
Label: Matador Records
Producer: Queens of the Stone Age