Era Vulgaris, quinto disco in studio per i Queens Of The Stone Age, band nata anni or sono dalle ceneri dei defunti Kyuss, creatori dello stoner rock. "Era Vulgaris" sarà disponibile nei negozi il 12 Giugno 2007, ma grazie alle magie di Internet ho potuto ascoltarlo in anteprima.

Escludendo il live "Over The Years And Through The Woods", il caro vecchio Homme ci aveva lasciati con "Lullabies To Paralyze", buon disco, molto eclettico e cangiante nelle melodie anche se di fatto meno stoner del resto della discografia. "Era Vulgaris" riparte dalle sonorità dettate dall'ultimo disco in studio e ne allarga le vedute, ritornando alle origini ed evolvendosi sotto certi aspetti. Durante le 11 tracce che compongono il disco (l'edizione giapponese e inglese conterrano anche un pezzo inciso assieme a Trent Reznor dei Nine Inch Nails e "Running Joke", assente nelle altre versioni) avremo modo di ascoltare hard rock, stoner e tracce di psichedelia. Delle ottime credenziali, quindi.

La traccia di apertura si intitola "Turning On The Screw". Un pezzo lento, caratterizzato dai classici riff stoner ripetuti fino ad un piacevole sfinimento. Una buona intro che sintetizza le sonorità di Era Vulgaris. Subito dopo si parte in quarta con il primo estratto dell'album; "Sick, Sick, Sick". Riff malato, veloce, semplicissimo. Ma di una efficacia che non si sentiva da un bel pò di tempo a questa parte. Come singolo per attirare l'ascoltatore medio è perfetto. Breve, chiaro e conciso che ricorda vagamente l'opener di "R". "I'm Designer" è un altro potenziale singolo. Riff sporchi si mischiano a giri di basso semplici, così come le parti di batteria. Il ritornello è molto orecchiabile ed entra in testa in un paio di ascolti al massimo. Con "Into The Hollow" si inizia a sentire la psichedelia citata in apertura. Gran bel pezzo che sa tanto di Kyuss "ripuliti". Si passa quindi per "Misfit Love" uno dei brani più stoner e più belli dell'album. Homme è ispirato come non mai e realizza uno dei brani più belli della sua carriera.

Ascoltando "Battery Acid" vi verrà in mente il primo e folgorante debut della band. Un ritmo incalzante supportato da riff precisissimi nello scandire il tempo dettato dalla batteria. "Make It Wit Chu" è invece un vero e proprio reprise di un brano comparso nelle "Desert Sessions 9 & 10". La nuova versione l'ha reso più bello e meno grezzo della frettolosa versione originale registrata in pochi giorni nel deserto di Joshua Tree. Caratterizzato da un ritmo lento e cadenzato, risulterà essere un'ottima pausa prima del rush finale. "3's & 7's", già candidato a futuro estratto, riprende il filo del discorso dell'album e ripropone ritmi veloci, riff potenti ma non invadenti e sonorità molto vicine al fortunato "Songs For The Deaf". Ora inizia il doppio episodio psichedelico dell'album; "Suture Up Your Future" e "River In The Road". La prima caratterizzata da un sali scendi molto ritmato, la seconda ha una intro che ricorda la psichedelia dei Kyuss ed è perfetta per sintetizzare l'accostamento QOTSA\Kyuss. L'ultimo brano del disco (nell'edizione normale) è "Run Pig Run", un'orgia di suoni duri tipicamente hard rock. 

Insomma, i QOTSA sono tornati con un gran bel disco. Homme si conferma il Re Mida del rock, sempre ispiratissimo e in forma. Direi che manca davvero un soffio per poterli mettere lì, nell'olimpo del rock accanto ai grandissimi. 

Elenco tracce testi e video

01   Turnin' on the Screw (05:20)

You got a question? Please don't ask it
It puts the lotion in the basket
You say bigger's better but bigger's bigger
White boy dressed up like a
Figure drawn inside a toilet on the wall
The world is round,
My square don't fit at all

They say those who can't just instruct others & act like victims or jilted lovers
You can't lose it if you never had it
Disappear man. Do some magic
You want a reason? How's about because
You ain't a has been if you never was

I sound like this
Scared to say what is your passion
So slag it all
Bitter's in fashion
Fear of failure's all you've started
The jury's in, VERDICT:
Retarded,
I'm so tired, I'm wired too
I'm a mess I guess I'm turning on the screw

02   Sick, Sick, Sick (03:35)

Young, dumb, don't see a problem
Bloodshot, stare like a hoodlum
Simple as this; I'm in love with the risk
I know what I've done,
But tell me what did I miss?
So please don't save something
Waste not, save nothing
Lose the halo, don't need to resist
I lick on my lips, and I grip on your hips.

Sick, sick, sick
Don't resist
Sick, sick, sick
Don't resist

First thing we succumb to
Shall, erase, and undo
Days are unreleased, if there's no police
Race to slip into whatever fits you
Make something, make someone
Beg on a knee, baby baby please
Pout your bottom lip
While cracking the whip

You know what we want,
It's candy to cum to

Sick, sick, sick
Don't resist
Sick, sick, sick
Don't resist
Sick, sick, sick
Don't resist
Sick, sick, sick
Don't resist

A total eclipse in the teeth of the risk
The tongue is a twist, perpetual bliss
Forever midnight
Forever midnight
Forever midnight
Forever...

Sick, sick, sick
Don't resist
Sick, sick, sick
Don't resist

Sick sick, sick (I'm gonna take)
Don't resist (I don't wanna choose)
Sick, sick, sick (I'm gonna take)
Don't resist (I don't wanna change)

03   I'm Designer (04:04)

My generation’s for sale
Beats a steady job.
How much have you got ?
My generation don’t trust no one
It's hard to blame
Not even ourselves
The thing that’s real for us is: Fortune and Fame
All the rest seems like work.
Its just like Diamonds
In shit

I’m high class I’m a Whore
Actually both
Basically I'm a Pro
We’ve all got our own style
Of Baggage
Why hump it yourself?
You’ve made me an offer that I can refuse
Cos either way I get screwed
COUNTER PROPOSAL:
I go home & Jerk Off

It’s truly a lie. I counterfeit myself
It’s truly a lie. I counterfeit myself
You don’t own, you don’t own, you don’t own
You don’t own, you don't own what none can buy
You don’t own, you don't own
NEITHER DO I

High and mighty you say selling out is a shame. Is that the name of your book?
Push a silver spoon in your ass. No more holding us down
dog. down mutt. Nice mutt

You’re insulted You can’t be bought or sold.
TRANSLATION: offer too low
You don’t know what you’re worth.
It isn’t much
My piano is for sale.
How many times must I sell myself
before my pieces are gone ?
I’m one of a kind !!!
I’m designer!

Never again will I repeat myself
Enough is never enough
Never again will I repeat myself

It used to be the plan was: SCREWING THE MAN
Now its HAVE SEX WITH A MAN (after he buys you dot-com for sale at a low, low price)

It’s truly a lie, I counterfeit myself
It's truly a lie, I counterfeit myself
You don’t own , you don’t own, you don’t own me
You don’t own what none can buy
You don’t own, you don't own what none can buy
NEITHER DO I

04   Into the Hollow (03:42)

Au revoir, Adieu, Goodnight
I’m too wrong, to get right
But I cant wait forever
I’ve always been alone
A fool believes he’s clever

Don’t you wanna go into the Hollow ?
I won’t go alone
Aren’t you gonna follow ?

I live behind my eyes
Be sure to keep the surprise
I break what I have borrowed
That’s why I always go
alone into tomorrow

Don’t you wanna go into the Hollow ?
I won’t go alone
Aren’t you gonna follow ?
Into the Hollow

05   Misfit Love (05:40)

06   Battery Acid (04:06)

Make you into dark
Straight into your heart
Sorry all you are
I don't really care

I know you are
Robots, robots
Brainwashed babies, blood from a leech
Spoken rabies
Spastic, plastic, battery acid
Yank on the leash
Dragging you backwards
Oh my, closed eyes never see it coming

There's no thing you can say
You can't wish me away
Every masochist gets a turn
Sadistic twist, you'll never learn

Battery acid
Battery acid

Battery acid in my veins
Unidentified remains
Yes button broke to automatic
Irrational dosage of furious static

Erasing what you are
You were

''(Jealous)'' To feel the way you do
''(Dementia)'' The lie you call the truth
''(Beautiful)'' Nothing except yourself, and nobody else
I got nobody else

There's no thing you can say
You can't wish me away
Every masochist gets a turn
Sadistic twist, you'll never learn

Battery acid
Battery acid

07   Make It Wit Chu (04:50)

You wanna know if I know why?
I can't say that I do
Don't understand the evil eye
Or how one becomes two
I just can't recall what started it all
Or how to begin the end
I ain't here to break it
Just see how far it will bend
Again and again, again and again

I wanna make it
I wanna make it wit chu
Anytime, anywhere

I wanna make it
(Again and again)
I wanna make it wit chu

Sometimes the same is different
But mostly it's the same
These mysteries of life,
That just ain't my thing
If I told you that I knew
About the sun and the moon I'd be untrue
The only thing I know for sure
Is what I won't do
Anytime, anywhere

I wanna make it
(Again and again)
I wanna make it wit chu
Anytime, anywhere

I wanna make it
(Again and again)
I wanna make it wit chu

I wanna make it
(Anytime, anywhere)
I wanna make it wit chu

I wanna make it,
I wanna make it wit chu

Again and again, and again, and again, and again

08   3's & 7's (03:34)

Lie, lie to my face
Tell me it ain't nothing
That's what I wanna hear
Take the lie to the grave
That's what an old friend told me
Look what it did for him

The truth hurts so bad
Wouldn't you say?
So why tell it?
If ignorance is bliss
Then I'm in heaven now

Run, you'll never escape
You see you'd go nowhere
Soon you will appear
Broke, laid to waste
Turn into sweet nothings
Kiss you goodbye

The truth hurts so bad
Wouldn't you say?
So why tell it?
If ignorance is bliss
Then I'm in heaven now

I keep going over and over again
To never ending places I've never been
No one's catching on, calling my bluff
The devil made me only we never met
What you do, say it with a smile boy
Making us all forget
What you do, say it with a smile boy
Making us all forget
Making us all forget
Making us all forget

09   Suture Up Your Future (04:37)

I'm gonna suture up my future
I ain't jaded, I just hate it
See, I been down too long
It's kinda hard to explain
Burned and buried, all I carried

All my evil through a needle
As if pulled through the eye
What was and what will
They're all gone

Don't sweat it
Thread it to forget it
To feel like you're already gone
To the rest of
The rest of the life that you've got
Take a picture
Bury it all away, bury it all away

Try to fake it, I just can't take it
I don't care if it hurts
Just so long as it's real
I won't waste it, I turn to face it
I'd sharpen the knife
Then used it to bone, made it dull

Tried explaining unexplained
Got caught in the plan
All this talking at once
I've been giving my love away
To the things that tear it apart
I'm gonna suture up my future

Thread it to forget it
To feel like you're already gone
To the rest of
The rest of the life that you've got
Tie the loose ends
Bury it all away
It's like there's
It's like there's

10   River in the Road (03:20)

Fast approaching Monsters marching in a row
Grab what slips your mind
And what your memory won’t hold

Run darling run
I'll stall them if I can
You'll escape and I'll be left rotting on the vine

Run darling run
I'll stall them if I can
You'll escape and I'll be left rotting on the vine

Avert the childrens eyes
Forget left untold
Don't look back to see
The blood River in the Road

Seek revenge with my Blood
River in the Road

11   Run, Pig, Run (04:40)

When I was young we used to play the game of hide and seek
Someone go hide, I count to ten
You probably never played, instead you talk a game of sheep
A skill you almost do perfect

Run, pig, run
Here I come
Ooh, ah, ooh, ah
Ooh, ah

I am no saint and make no claims to being in the right
It's just for now, I am wrong-less
You probably wondering with what to do, this has with you
I wanna play the game you missed

Run, pig, run
Here I come

There is no safe place
There is no safe place
There is no safe place to hide

Ooh, ah, ooh, ah
Wooh, ah

12   The Fun Machine Took a S***! and Died (06:57)

13   Make It With Chu (acoustic) (04:35)

14   Era Vulgaris (Richard File remix) (06:06)

15   I'm Designer (UNKLE remix) (06:11)

Carico i commenti...  con calma

Altre recensioni

Di  Vito Alberto

 "Era Vulgaris" mostra per ora luci ed ombre, ma queste ultime sono di gran lunga trascurabili per chi ha amato "Lullabies To Paralyze".

 La sessione di ascolto si apre con la perfetta "Turnin’ On The Screw", esempio della sintesi ricercata da Josh fra armonie vocali e robot rock.


Di  azzo

 Josh Homme continua a ripetere incessantemente sempre i soliti riff, senza soluzione di continuità.

 Dove trovare il sacro fuoco del rock'n'roll? Qui mi pare proprio spento.