Favorite albums: 2000-200427. Queens Of The Stone Age, Rated ROriginal position on my Stylus ballot: n/a If Josh Homme is the Tina Fey of rock - which I know everybody’s saying - then this is classic 30 Rock, with Nick Olivieri as Tracy covering the genre’s need for wild-ass while the former writer’s room hero and future Bossypants Homme gets confident with his unique persona (Mark Lanegan = Alec Baldwin). However, since Josh is a metal dude rather than a female Second City alum, it took me a while to warm up to his quirks and formal obsessions. They’re art-punky enough that it didn’t take me too long, though. While I certainly endorsed this album as a Worthwhile Direction For Metal upon its release, that was mostly because nobody did a death growl on it. It was the flashier highlights on Songs For The Deaf that made me a fan, with Lullabies To Paralyze’s swingin’ push tracks confirming the guy totally wanted more women at the shows and songs on the radio (that his “robot-rock” aesthetic didn’t click harder is more America’s problem than his, in my opinion). Unfortunately, those albums both have long slogs of Uncompromised Real Stoner Metal Whatnot weighing them down in the middle. Meanwhile, R (with only two thudders - one pretty varied and under 6 minutes, the other a closing meltdown spruced up by trumpets) has revealed itself as a more consistent source of the groovy Eno-metal I now need a regular fix of. And as much as I like his later star turns, there really was something to this wacky ensemble.

Favorite albums: 2000-2004
27. Queens Of The Stone Age, Rated R
Original position on my Stylus ballot: n/a

If Josh Homme is the Tina Fey of rock - which I know everybody’s saying - then this is classic 30 Rock, with Nick Olivieri as Tracy covering the genre’s need for wild-ass while the former writer’s room hero and future Bossypants Homme gets confident with his unique persona (Mark Lanegan = Alec Baldwin). However, since Josh is a metal dude rather than a female Second City alum, it took me a while to warm up to his quirks and formal obsessions. They’re art-punky enough that it didn’t take me too long, though.

While I certainly endorsed this album as a Worthwhile Direction For Metal upon its release, that was mostly because nobody did a death growl on it. It was the flashier highlights on Songs For The Deaf that made me a fan, with Lullabies To Paralyze’s swingin’ push tracks confirming the guy totally wanted more women at the shows and songs on the radio (that his “robot-rock” aesthetic didn’t click harder is more America’s problem than his, in my opinion). Unfortunately, those albums both have long slogs of Uncompromised Real Stoner Metal Whatnot weighing them down in the middle. Meanwhile, R (with only two thudders - one pretty varied and under 6 minutes, the other a closing meltdown spruced up by trumpets) has revealed itself as a more consistent source of the groovy Eno-metal I now need a regular fix of. And as much as I like his later star turns, there really was something to this wacky ensemble.