10 Perfect Alternative Albums That Deserve A Lot More Love
9. Era Vulgaris - Queens of the Stone Age
From day one, Josh Homme never really intended for Queens of the Stone Age to stay exclusively in the world of stoner rock. There was always a lot more potential, and we got a few tastes of what a new Queens could sound like on albums like Lullabies to Paralyze. Before we got an entire reconstruction of the group on ...Like Clockwork, Era Vulgaris was the closest that they've ever come to making what Homme had described as robot rock.
Don't go thinking that this is the kind of thing Daft Punk was talking about. While the core character of Queens is still in here, you can feel that the riffs get a little more off kilter, almost like they are being generated by machines that are about to crash. There are also a few times where Homme gets to fool around with some new styles, like going full on Elvis on Make it Wit Chu or songs that don't even seem to have a genre like Turnin on the Screw.
Homme had originally wanted Trent Reznor behind the board for this record, and you can really here what he was going for, making for an album that's seductive but also a little bit off putting the more you listen to it. If Songs for the Deaf took you on a ride through the desert, this is what it sounds like when that ride starts to break down.