The last time we got a proper studio effort from the Queens Of The Stone Age was 2013 and, when all's said and done, it wasn't great. It had some decent tracks ("If I Had A Tail") but also a lot of droning Alternative shit ("My God Is The Sun", "...Like Clockwork", "Keep Your Eyes Peeled"). The good news for fans of that music is that Villains still offers tracks that could fit in with previous QOTSA albums but is definitely more of a Pop friendly record on the whole. You can thank producer Mark Ronson for that. Yep, THAT Mark Ronson. The one responsible for the ubiquitous crap known as "Uptown Funk" that ultimately made Josh Homme hire him for the purpose of making this album easier to dance to.
Album opener "Feet Don't Fail Me" introduces this blend of funky Pop with QOTSA weirdness quite well, although the track does begin with about 1:50 of atmospheric tedium that should've been its own track before jumping into this one (like "The Hellion" - Judas Priest or "Signs Of Chaos" - Testament). The rest of the track boasts a terrible guitar solo and Josh Homme doing a David Bowie impression but other than that, it's a fairly mediocre tune to start the album off. Luckily, the two lead singles from the album do a better job of mixing dance rhythms with Rock riffs.
"The Way You Used To Do" is a huge improvement over the depressing noise of ...Like Clockwork, even if it sounds more like Pop Rock or Indie/Alternative than some of the Hard Rock hits from the band's past. However, even with the synth sound effects and clapping rhythm, the band still sound like the band and the riffs are multi-functional, depending on whether you prefer to dance in your living room or air guitar in your bedroom. It's just a shame it ends on an unnecessary instrumental outro after the song finishes.
"The Evil Has Landed" is also a solid choice for the pre-release singles as it's still a guitar-driven track and firmly belongs in the Rock category with its Led Zeppelin riffs and Eagles Of Death Metal outro that probably should've been a different track to prevent this one from going on too long. Either way, this is the kind of material that I want to hear when listening to Queens Of The Stone Age; Rock that's a little bit different but is definitely still Rock. This album needed more songs like this for me to personally enjoy it.
I'm not saying the album's poorly recorded by the band or produced by Mr Boogie-Woogie (it pains me to say Mark Ronson is still a damn good producer, even if he's focused on a genre I don't care for as much). In fact, I have several good things to say about it too. For starters, regardless of your taste for Rock/Pop, it's definitely a different album to the last one without completely neglecting the progress they made in adapting their sound. There's also a very obvious direction the band wanted to go for and they made it without compromising the objective quality of the music; even if Josh Homme's Bowiesque vocals do start to feel less like homage and more like self-inflation as the album progresses, at least they're still appropriate for the music.
However, despite the occasional injection of humour and wackiness (particularly in "Head Like A Haunted House", my favourite track off the album complete with bass driven rhythms, aggressive guitar tones and Sci-Fi/camp horror effects similar to SpizzEnergi), there's something just a little bit pompous about the whole thing. Whether it's in small observations like the use of stringed instruments in "Un-Reborn Again" or obvious surface level ones like the name of the song itself, the album could've benefited from someone taking a step back and reminding Josh Homme that he's not the defining artist of a generation but I guess spending time with Iggy Pop will do that to you.
Granted it doesn't take itself quite as seriously as the last album (although tracks like "Domesticated Animals" show glimmers of self-inflation in the discordant, clunky melodies) but for what's clearly meant to be a more casual experience for listeners, there aren't a huge amount of easily accessible Pop Rock tracks. Tracks like "Fortress", "Hideaway" and "Villains Of Circumstance" sound more like twisted New Romanticism than Alternative or even conventional Pop Rock; they're less like tracks you'd hear at a fun concert and more like background music at a club where everyone has multicoloured hair and at least one plaid outfit in their wardrobe.
If you enjoy each of these genres covered across Villains then you'll probably like the experience of listening to it start to finish. If you're indifferent to any of them, I'd still recommend giving the album a try as it's all decent but not the kind of material you'd get great pleasure out of revisiting on a frequent basis. If you hate any of the genres I mentioned (particularly Pop based ones), give the other songs a go but don't expect to find your new favourite song. The album blends each musical flavour like ingredients in a sauce and you're not going to love the taste of bolognese if you can't stand onions.
I rate Villains 7/10 for containing a decent mix of tracks assembled by professionals in their field despite occasionally spreading themselves a little too thin for fans of one genre over the other. My only major concern for the future of this band is that Josh Homme's ego is starting to show. As long as he keeps the number of side projects under control and continues to make albums that are about the music instead of how great he is, he might just avoid becoming the next Glenn Hughes.
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