Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures (From Salisbury Journal)

Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures

11:25am Wednesday 18th November 2009

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Artist - Them Crooked Vultures
Album - Them Crooked Vultures
Label - Sony

Them Crooked Vultures is the latest supergroup to involve Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and Dave Grohl (of, well, everything…), and rather remarkably adds in the Led Zeppelin quiet man, John Paul Jones.

What we have here is an album that rather neatly updates the Cream idea. Grohl is an excellent drummer, and his time on drums when Led Zeppelin graced the Foo Fighters stage clearly sparked something.

The album is riff heavy, and full of the bluesy thick rock that would make any fan of Clapton’s supergroup shed a tear of reminiscence.

The format clearly suits each of the musicians, with the kind of punch we expect from QoTSA enhanced by some Led Zeppelin basslines.

There’s nothing modern in any one of these 13 tracks, and that is perhaps the album’s greatest highlight – it presumes that great rock will always be great rock, without any need for frippery.

Grohl’s sidelines (such as Tenacious D, QoTSA, even the odd track for Pete Yorn) show that he’s someone who can elevate any encounter.

This album makes a play to be one of the best rock albums of the decade, and it has neatly come in right towards the end.

Rating 9/10
Mike Rea

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