Best Albums of the Decade – #5

Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R (2000)

Following the break-up of Kyuss, pioneers in the stoner rock genre, lead guitarist Josh Homme went on to form his own new band, “Queens of the Stone Age”. One would ask, why “queens” rather than “kings”? “Kings would be too macho. The Kings of the Stone Age wear armor and have axes and wrestle. The Queens of the Stone Age hang out with the Kings of the Stone Age’s girlfriends when they wrestle, and also it was a name given to us by Chris Goss. He gave us the name Queens of the Stone Age. Rock should be heavy enough for the boys and sweet enough for the girls. That way everyone’s happy and it’s more of a party. Kings of the Stone Age is too lopsided.”, Homme says. And I swear he’s right, there’s at least one track for everyone on this album, heavy or mellow, psychedelic or grungy, mysterious and dark. Folks, this is what drug abuse does, and in fact, it doesn’t sound bad at all.