10 Great Albums You Didn't Understand The First Time
6. Era Vulgaris - Queens Of The Stone Age
Out of all the fantastic hard rock acts to come out of the 2000's, Queens of the Stone Age stands as one of the few groups that has yet to release a bad album. However, many fans point to 2007's Era Vulgaris as the band at one of their more uninspired points.
When listening to it initially, it's clear that the more artsy direction is not the Queens we got to know on Songs for the Deaf. With Josh Homme utilizing countless musicians, the album can seem like a hodgepodge at the outset. What most people forget in this scenario though is the off-kilter beauty with which Homme approaches his riffs. Given the album's more straightforward rock approach, Homme claims this album is the closest the band has come to creating his self-defined "robot rock" genre of music.
The album also takes a few detours with the laid back Elvis stylings on "Make it Wit Chu" and the track "Sick Sick Sick," which stands as one of the harshest cuts the band have ever released. At a time when the Songs for the Deaf lineup was all but dissolved, Era Vulgaris was the exact moment where QOTSA became Homme's band, which he would take through the deepest depths of rock and beyond.