CD Review: ERA VULGARIS

since the end of high school, my musical tastes began shifting away from hard rock toward rap and lighter indie rock. i still gave my rage against the machine and deftones albums plenty of burn but the hard rock afterward wasn't resonating with me. i would occasionally hear a song that seemed a little better or intriquing but, with my audio galaxy downloading days far behind me, i never felt like spending the twelve bucks to find out if an entire album was worthwhile.

one such song that exemplified this was "no one knows" by queens of the stone age. it contained a hooky guitar riff, shifts in tempo, a funky bass bridge, and amazing drumming (by nirvana and foo fighters alum dave grohl). it even had a fun music video.

that was it though. just a single song from a musical island until i bumped into some more queens of the stone age songs in the game rock band. each subsequent track i heard (and got to play) got the blood running with the same mixture of percussive forward force and clever guitar riff in a heavier environment than i had found with the franz ferdinands and the strokes of the world.

thanks to the minneapolis public library, i got my grubby paws on ERA VULGARIS. i noticed two songs from rock band ("3's & 7's" and "sick, sick, sick") as cuts i liked already and was pleased by the rest of the album. upbeat, but with enough tempo shifts to keep it interesting, qotsa (as i will refer to them henceforth) sublimate harder guitar effects into catchy songs. i don't know how to judge vocals apart from knowing whether they distract me from listening or not, and these do not. the two linked songs are fairly representative of the album as a whole save except for the great pace changer "make it wit chu." while the subject matter is puerile, the throwback funk influences add depth to an interesting album that might feel repititive otherwise.

after a whole album's worth, i still want to listen to more. thankfully, more is on the way. thanks again minneapolis public library!