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Them Crooked Vultures are a supergroup consisting of Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. On their first album, though, it would appear that the driving force behind the band is Homme. Not only does he provide vocals on Them Crooked Vultures, but his band’s trippy brand of hard rock can be felt all over this debut album’s 13 songs.

As with many side projects, Them Crooked Vultures can sometimes be too indulgent and experimental for their own good, but on the whole this is a rewarding album that will fit in nicely next to your other favorite QOTSA records.

Keep Those Expectations in Check

The Them Crooked Vultures project had been hinted about for several years, but in early 2009 the group started working in earnest to record their first album. Because of the three high-profile participants in the band, it’s inevitable that there will be a certain amount of expectations placed on Them Crooked Vultures, which works both for and against the resulting album. On the one hand, knowing who these guys are will make the average listener more patient when judging a record that often eschews easily accessible hard rock for more adventurous textures and song structures. (In other words, if this album came from unknowns, some of its adventurousness might not seem as inherently interesting.) But at the same time, elevated expectations can create an unreasonable hope that Them Crooked Vultures will be a brilliant merging of Foo Fighters, R and Led Zeppelin IV, which runs counter to the just-for-fun spirit of much of this album.

Ultimately, it’s best to keep an open mind while hearing Them Crooked Vultures – it won’t blow you away, but it will impress you.

Queens Frontman Front and Center

With Grohl manning the drums (like he did during his time with Nirvana) and Jones on bass, Homme handles vocals and guitars on the album. Not surprisingly then, Them Crooked Vultures could be a distant cousin of QOTSA albums like R and Songs for the Deaf, especially since Grohl drummed on Deaf. Also adding to the sense that this is more Homme’s album, Them Crooked Vultures doesn’t often have the easy, straightforward attack of the Foo Fighters or the lumbering massiveness of primo Zeppelin. Homme’s bandmates’ influences certainly factor into Them Crooked Vultures – they’re all three credited with the songwriting on the album – but it certainly seems that Homme had the largest say on how these songs ended up. Consequently, Them Crooked Vultures boasts a fearsome, tough-guy aesthetic that’s typical of his material – it sounds like high-quality garage-rock that emphasizes gigantic riffs and wandering digressions. Whether it’s the first single, “New Fang,” or the cocky strut of “Gunman,” you can hear Homme’s work with QOTSA and Eagles of Death Metal on Them Crooked Vultures, and it’s fun to see him mix it up with new collaborators.

Old Vultures, New Tricks

That Them Crooked Vultures is a hard rock album is unsurprising, but some of the experimental edges on this record certainly are. The pop melody skipping through the stomping breakup song “Bandoliers” creates a great yin-and-yang quality as the track’s softer and harder elements nicely complement each other. On “Scumbag Blues,” the guys nick the riff from Cream’s “Strange Brew” but then go crazy with a funky organ interlude, making classic rock feel funky and contemporary. And for their final act, the album’s closing track, “Spinning in Daffodils,” begins with a stately piano figure before it disappears under storm clouds of guitars and psychedelic vocals. The seven-minutes-plus finale is very much in keeping with previous QOTSA albums that would save their longest, most bizarre tracks for the very end. Considering these odder Them Crooked Vultures tracks, it’s tempting to assume that they would only appear on a side project where the band members are trying new things, but even if they aren’t typical of these musicians, they’re compelling songs.

'Them Crooked Vultures' - Bottom Line

Tell rock fans that a group consisting of guys from Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age will be putting out an album, and you’re bound to generate some excitement. Undoubtedly many listeners will be disappointed with Them Crooked Vultures because it doesn’t represent a best-case-scenario merging of those bands’ talents, but sometimes supergroups exist so that their members can branch out a little. Them Crooked Vultures is a happy middle ground between the expected and the unexpected – it’s an album that can’t hold a candle to those groups’ greatest albums, but it’s different enough that you’re happy these three musicians decided to finally let this project take flight.

'Them Crooked Vultures' – Best Tracks:

“Gunman” (Purchase/Download)
“New Fang” (Purchase/Download)
“Bandoliers” (Purchase/Download)
“Reptiles” (Purchase/Download)
“Spinning in Daffodils” (Purchase/Download)

Release date – November 17, 2009
DGC/Interscope

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