CD Review: Them Crooked Vultures
Christina CaldwellIssue date: 11/19/09 Section: Music
|
Them Crooked Vultures
(Interscope)
Grade: A
There have been rumors of a Led Zeppelin reunion tour for the past couple years. Zep-heads sat at their computers and refreshed the page to hear the latest murmurs between guitarist Jimmy Page and frontman Robert Plant. "Are they or aren't they!?," they screamed as they hurled their tear-drenched 30-year-old vintage Physical Graffiti shirt at the screen. "Why don't they just quit jerking us around?!"
Then they shattered all hopes and did just that. Plant announced that he didn't want to damage Led Zep's "legacy" and the band felt incomplete without deceased drumanimal John Bonham. Rumors of replacing Bonham with Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) fizzled out. Well, until July.
So maybe the rest of the legendary Led Zeppelin didn't want to reunite, but bassist John Paul Jones just got sick of not playing music. Those Dave Grohl rumors came to a head when the two paired up with Queens of the Stone Age frontman and guitarist to create a supergroup (we know - big eye roll) to shatter all supergroups.
Them Crooked Vultures was born and right out of the womb their screaming, hell-raising, devilishly sexy self-titled album is blowing minds. It's rock music stripped down to the core. They could have called it Queens of the Zeppelin Fighters.
A perfect fusion of Queens of the Stone Age dreamy-quirkiness, Foo Fighters' accessibility and Led Zeppelin's raw power, Them Crooked Vultures rounds up the bluesy guitar licks, thumper-like bass drum and pulse-pounding bass that would have been used in a Led Zeppelin tour and turns them on their head. The group offers just enough ingenuity to keep the album fresh, while still pleasing fans of their respective projects.
Despite all of that, the rock superstars still manage to sound unpretentious. It's less of an ego-fest than it is a jam session. There's an audible love that goes into each note on Them Crooked Vultures, which makes it one of the best albums of 2009.
Be the first to comment on this story