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Queens Of The Stone Age - Go With The Flow
Weeks on Chart: 16 Peak: # 21 (July 2003) buy it!
Queens Of The Stone Age's Songs For The Deaf is a good, ambitious hard rocking record that works best when the guys loosen up a little. Go With The Flow, the followup to longtime top 50 resident No One Knows, gets a fun, frantic energy from Dave Grohl's hard, distinctively whacking and Nick Oliveri's sturdy, fast bass line. Simple, steady piano and Josh Homme's cutting guitar interjections also help hurtle the song forward. In the midst of Go With The Flow's ebullient chaos, Homme's controlled, unshowy vocal provides some balance. Homme's singing is a welcome contrast to the emotive narcissism that dominates rock music these days. Go With The Flow is apparently about being willing to go along with a breakup but not being happy about.
Queens of the Stone Age - The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
Weeks on Chart: 3 Peak: # 36 (Sept. 2000) buy it!
It turns out that the most influential alternative rock band of the 90's might not have been Nirvana or even Pearl Jam. Queens of the Stone Age are another young band that resemble Alice In Chains. Like that now defunct band, Queens of the Stone Age have assaultive guitars and a nasty edge but still know how to make a catchy hook. The Lost Art's chorus, with Josh Homme singing menacingly, "whatever you do, don't tell anybody" is a real grabber. The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret is from the band's CD called R.
Queens Of The Stone Age - No One Knows
Weeks on Chart: 32 Peak: # 4 (March 2003) buy it!
No One Knows is from Queens Of The Stone Age's ambitious, sprawling Songs For The Deaf CD. On No One Knows, like on much of Songs For The Deaf, QOTSA writer/musicians Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri show that music can rock and not be really stupid or predictable. Homme's stomping guitar line is one of the best riffs of the year. It gives No One Knows heft and edge and keeps the song moving. Homme supplements the riff with big, crunching playing on the chorus and a dramatic but tight solo. Homme's singing is typically unshowy but he also appreciates rock dynamics, following the song's flow as he shifts from a serious, troubled vocal to a more excited falsetto. No One Knows is a well deserved commercial breakthrough for QOTSA and one of the better rock songs of 2002. I guess that No One Knows is an appreciation of the gift of having someone special who's "mine, indeed a fool of mine" in a world that's otherwise filled with stupid rules and hopelessness.
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