Queens Of The Stone Age Share New Album 'Perfecth'

Nearly three decades following the launch of Queens Of The Stone Age's debut album (initially viewed as a Kyuss spin-off project when it dropped in '98), Josh Homme's impact on 21st Century rock has been immense to put it lightly. Alluding to wabi-sabi / heta-uma ("bad but good") concepts of beauty in imperfection, QOTSA's ninth studio long player Perfecth finds specific inspiration in kintsugi — "the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by filling its cracks with gold" — across nine tunes recorded by Homme with veteran bandmates Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman, Dean Fertitaboth, and Jon Theodore.

Homme's unmistakable, still low key remarkable vocal powers bind together an intentionally disjointed variety of styles, and even recording aesthetics, on a record he says seeks to "stitch together all these emotions revolving around love, lust, foolishness, and the sort of wisdom that comes as a gift from all that." Homme and co. aren't here to rip your head off with an overdose of heavy riffs — recent single 'Where The Goth Girls At' is probably the most powerhouse offering — often leaning into glam / boogie rock zones this time around, orchestral strings rising with the guitar fuzz.

Amongst today's fresh batch, 'It's Only Love' eases us in with a slow-burning piano-led intro, jammy and collaged 'Mono' has the atmosphere of bluesy late night dive bars, and 'From the Cliff' provides a delicate acoustic ballad interlude, Homme's falsetto croon in radiant form. On 'Sunday' the QOTSA pendulum swings into motorik blues-rock boogie in the grand tradition of ZZ Top, and penultimate track 'Phantom Limb' balances lonesome melancholy with a panoramic desert rock swagger befitting the Californian veterans.

Out in time for Halloween via Matador Records, there'll be special HalloQueen album launch events happening at independent record stores around Aotearoa this Saturday — in Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin (full list HERE) — where you can snag the "VERY limited-edition" Perfecth picture disc, plus QOTSA goodies. Dive into Perfecth and catch QOTSA's imminent return down under, supported by Primus (!) and Tropical Fuck Storm at Auckland's Spark Arena on 20th December...

"Nothing in this world is perfect, but everything seems to be ‘perfecth’. And that title is funny when you're in a group, but it ain't so fucking funny when you're alone and you realize how imperfect everything is. It's the struggle." - Josh Homme

'Perfecth' is out today on major streaming platforms via Matador Records.