By Jeremiah Magan
Daily Titan Opinion Writer

It’s difficult not to think that you are listening to a Queens of the Stone Age album when you hear Them Crooked Vultures and their self-titled debut album. Josh Homme, the lead singer for both bands, doesn’t stray too far from what he knows. If you are a fan of QOTSA this is a good thing.

What sets this album apart from Homme’s previous work is the inclusion of Dave Grohl (drums) of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, and John Paul Jones (bass) of Led Zeppelin.

Avoiding comparison is impossible, especially since Grohl played drums for one of QOTSA’s albums. Grohl’s drumming is tight, meshing well with the bass work of Jones as a driving force, especially for songs like “No One Loves Me & Neither Do I” and “Warsaw or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up.”

Being a primarily three-piece band, Jones’ bass playing is distinguishable amongst the sounds, but for the most part, it only supports the guitar, as most bass playing does in current music. Jones truly breaks through using distorted bass as the dominant sound in “Gunman,” making it one of TCV’s funk influenced tracks when it is mixed with the keytar.

TCV takes a different direction with two of its songs. “Elephants” starts like a Van Halen anthem but reverts back to a style similar to the rest of the album. “Interlude with Ludes” takes a trip through a field of strange, indistinguishable sounds, hollow drums and echoing vocals. The lyrics are difficult to discern but add to the mysterious nature of the song: “On the good ship lollygag / LSD and a bloody pile of rags / I hate to be the bearer of bad news / but I am.”

Them Crooked Vultures is a solid album all the way around. For fans of QOTSA there will be a lot to enjoy, but anyone looking to hear something completely original will be sorely disappointed. Homme, Grohl and Jones take what they do best and continue on. And there is nothing wrong with that.