Rock’n’roll needed some re-energising back at the beginning of the 21st century. It was a new millennium – the old rules need not apply. Queens Of The Stone Age were just the guys, a crew of playful, charismatic mavericks from the desert determined to reshape the rock landscape in their own offbeat image. Led by growling pussycat Josh Homme, a man halfway poised between hug and headlock, they were just the tonic that 2000 required. Their second record Rated R was the bottle of gin it was mixed with.
It turns 25 next week and the breakthrough albums for one of modern rock’s most defining bands sounds as vital as it did upon arrival. The chugging psychedelia and locked-in grooves of their self-titled 1998 debut suggested Homme was heading into uncharted territory after the dissolution of Kyuss, the stoner-rock trailblazers he co-founded in Palm Desert, but Rated R hammered home the point. An exhilarating meld of hard-rock riffs, melodious hooks, twisted deviations, pounding rhythms, explosive dynamics, it was a record thrillingly at odds with itself, where the heavy sounded light and the light punched you in the face when you weren’t expecting it.
