Page 111 - FULL BOOK Isata Kanneh-Mason Childhood Tales

Hold that joyful thought, as Queens of the Stone Age are about to suck it out
the room with their dark, intense new album. Turns out the sleek, Mark

Ronson-produced Villains was a false dawn, but lockdown and loss do have

a tendency to pull the rug from under the party.

In recent years, frontman Josh Homme has suffered multiple bereavements,

including the premature deaths of his muso pals Taylor Hawkins and
sometime QOTSA vocalist Mark Lanegan, not to mention a spiralling

custody battle with ex-wife Brody Dalle of The Distillers.

Far From Saints PIC: Sophia French

The song titles on In Times New Roman are replete with sardonic wordplay

but Homme plays it pretty straight with the lyrics. In contrast to the relative
vulnerability of Foo Fighters’ But Here We Are, Homme channels his anger

into his customary terse, tough guitar riffola and through vocals which
deliberately stray into sneering rock operatics – call it the Iggy attitude,

which has thoroughly rubbed off on Homme across their recent exultant

collaborations.

What the Peephole Say is as old school punk as Queens have ever been,

revving up to a conclusion high on tightly coiled energy, Sicily encompasses
dynamic, symphonic rock and distorted bluesy twang and nine-minute