- Critic score
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- By date
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UncutThey continue to find some clever ways to do a pretty dumb thing. [Jul 2007, p.112]
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It's exhilarating, the best rock & roll record yet released in 2007.
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SpinIt sounds awesome. [Jul 2007, p.102]
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FilterIt's still rebellion without destination. [#25, p.89]
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You can hear the band rediscovering its footing as one of the strangest, funniest, and best acts of the decade.
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Era sounds like an effort to pull away from commercial radio and actually cultivate a smaller, indie-er fan base.
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Josh Homme wants Era Vulgaris to be your summer bonfire record. And with a restored aura of cockiness and predictably massive arsenal of riffage, he’s once again fulfilled his goal.
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If Lullabies To Paralyze was a strange forest fairytale dusted with desert blues courtesy of Billy Gibbons, Era Vulgaris finds the band holed up in an abandoned funkhouse in the centre of a shady copse, waiting for some strange sexually-contracted fever to pass.
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Homme's ever-catchy formula remains, but the mood is uneasy and brooding, with tracks such as 'Sick, Sick, Sick' revealing a venomous new band that's finally learned to separate business and pleasure.
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Era Vulgaris is Homme's fifth Queens album, and like the others, it's intricately crafted, meticulously polished and ruthlessly efficient in its pursuit of depraved rock thrills.
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Alternative PressHomme's modern macabre lyricism and experimental, melodic prowess... make this a more complete album that Lullabies. [Jul 2007, p.176]
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The Queens’ music has always been a kind of battleground for the proverbial devil and angel on Homme’s shoulders – with the devil winning, of course – and that continues to be the case here, with Homme’s bewitching falsetto croon acting as the spirit to the band’s tattooed, hairy flesh, and bruising, cactus-dry workouts giving way to lush, psychedelic oases of darkly reflective sound.
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Slick, sly, hard-hitting, and intelligent, Era Vulgaris is the rare big record with staying power.
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On this album he decisively shakes off the enervation and jokey detachment that made the Queens’ last few albums sound like in-jokes. This time Mr. Homme hones his songs.
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Spiky and cool where 'Songs For The Deaf' was smooth and tanned, tense and alien where that record was baked and ready to party, 'Era Vulgaris' is a record that feels like rust and stings like battery acid.
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Though QOTSA always seem to be on bland-rock stations, this is as different from the mainstream as you can imagine, and not in a bad way.
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"Era Vulgaris" ain't vulgar at all — in fact it's musicianly as heck.
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So when Era Vulgaris comes as a bit of a disappointment, well, that's all relative, since it still rocks mightily.
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BillboardQOTSA envelops many of the songs in a fog of menacing guitar squall that focuses as much on atmospherics as hooks. [16 Jun 2007]
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The Queens treading water is still better than watching so many others horribly drowning.
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Somehow, it all works together, from the psychedelic guitar warble to the bits of prog to the almost country-style harmonies.
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Not content with making a diverse, punchy record brimming with those trademark riffs, Homme has written lyrics that make you think.
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"Era Vulgaris" is dense and loud, and though there are hooks beneath the grimy surface, they're not always immediately apparent. Yet with enough patience, you'll find these tunes burrowing in a little deeper each time through the record.
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While Era Vulgaris is not cohesive in tone (Could it be a reflection of today’s fragmented, compartmentalized world that pulls in all directions?) and doesn’t fire consistently on all cylinders, the album is still chock-a-block with complex instrumental arrangements, stop-and- start rhythms, gracefully refined harmonies, cranked-up choruses, and pointed commentary on the modern world.
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Era Vulgaris gets better with each listen, and that’s mostly due to the fact that the melodies take time to sink in.
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This time around things are more industrial and complex but every bit as sleazy and intoxicating.
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It's not so much that the songs themselves are weak, just that many of the choices made in them are.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 205 out of 233
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Mixed: 19 out of 233
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Negative: 9 out of 233
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TomBNov 30, 2009
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Oct 8, 2017
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Sep 13, 2017