Tuesday 3 November 2009

47: Queens Of The Stone Age - Go With The Flow

Probably my favourite hard rock band of the decade, Queens of the Stone Age, led by their irrepressible frontman, Josh Homme, became the finest purveyors of sleazy stoner rock, with a string of phenomenal albums. 2000's 'Rated R' was the most critically acclaimed, and 2005's 'Lullabies to Paralyze' had the most catchy hits, but 2002's 'Songs For The Deaf' was the real masterpiece, a multi-million selling hour of guitar mayhem, all chugging riffs, chaotic drums (courtesy of a certain Dave Grohl) and husky vocals c/o Homme.



'Go With The Flow' was the album's central focus, its core, dividing up the heavier first half of the record from the slower, more considered second half. It's not a subtle track - the guitars come crashing in right from the off, and structure-wise, it's pretty much verse/chorus/verse/chorus, but in this case, this is not necessarily a bad thing. And the drumming time shift from verse to chorus is a work of art. Homme sings "I want something good to die for, to make it beautiful to live" and amazingly, makes it sound believable. That's the power of QOTSA for you.


Most impressively, for an unconventional and gritty hard rock song, 'Go With The Flow' reached #21 in the singles charts, no mean feat.

2 comments:

  1. I think I'd go right back to 2000 for Feel Good Hit Of The Summer. Agree that they're the best hard rock band of the decade though.

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  2. Utterly brilliant song. Could easily have 4 or 5 of their songs in the Top 100.

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