Coda.fm

Rated R

by Queens of the Stone Age

• Buy it at Amazon.com

Trippy, forceful, and timeless, Rated R is rife with heavy, heady, trance-inducing post-hippie creations that recall Soundgarden and Fu Manchu. Singer/guitarist Josh Homme, founder of the defunct but much-worshipped "stoner-rock" band Kyuss, heads the group. And while he's joined by guests such as Mark Lanegan and Barrett Martin of the Screaming Trees, it's the oddball songs rendered by Homme's sexy voice and searing guitars that make this album sing. Kudos too, to the producer Chris Goss, formerly of another remarkable band, Masters of Reality. The Bowie-like surrealism of "Auto Pilot" makes it this set's classic; in fact, much of Rated R presents dark, Cocteau-like idiosyncrasies, often aided by touches of surprising humor. In the tongue-in-cheek-titled "The Feel-Good Hit of the Summer," the line "Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, marijuana, Ecstasy, and alcohol" is repeated like a mantra, while "Better Living Through Chemistry," is steeped in hallucinogenic sounds. The frenetic "Monsters in the Parasol" is sonically rich, its primal riffing best ingested loud and via headphones, while "Quick and to the Pointless," boasts a raucous MC5/Blue Cheer vibe. This wondrous sophomore effort defies all categorization, except cool. --Katherine Turman