Vinyl of the Week - 20 November, 2021

Villains, Queens Of The Stone Age

DISPLAYABLE vinyl of the week. This week I’ve chosen this little gem from 2017. Queens Of the Stone Age formed in California in 1996, founded by Josh Homme, the only continual member of the band. I think that's one of their strengths - the fact that the line-up has constantly changed keeps things interesting. New band members bring their own influences with Homme still setting the overall tone and direction, each album having its own distinctive sound underscored by the band’s signature hard rock swagger. Villains is QOTSA’s seventh studio album. Starting with the upbeat ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me’ and ‘The Way You Used To Do’, progressing into heavier territory with ‘Head Like A Haunted House’, then finishing with the broody ‘Villains of Circumstance’, it’s got all the elements of a classic QOTSA album. The cover art is also impressive. Designed by the UK artist known as Boneface, Josh Homme went against the tradition of working with a different artist for each album cover and utilised him again following their collaboration on previous album …Like Clockwork. When asked to describe the album in one sentence Boneface said, “Flash Gordon dancing through an 80’s-futuristic ghost train ride as Dracula watches from the shadows…” Couldn’t have put it better myself – DS