off topic: Latest rock Supergroup - "Them Crooked Vultures"

John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl, Josh Homme? These are the members of the latest rock “Supergroup” called “Them Crooked Vultures”. Anyone who recognizes these names would have no hesitation in picking up their self titled debut album that came out late last year.  I have just run the disc once and I am disappointed to say the least. Maybe it would grow on me with more spins.

I am not a huge Josh Homme fan barring selected QOSA material and my disappointment with the album is purely that Josh gets to write and sing all the material. Wonder what it would have been with Dave on the vocals? For QOSA fans this could be right up there with ‘Deaf..” and that’s precisely where the album fails for me. A lot of guitar work by Josh sounds too similar to what we have all heard before and it’s hard to comprehend either his vocals or his lyrics. The overall sound is more QOSA than either Nirvana or Zeppelin - an opportunity lost in my opinion.

There surely are some brilliant moments on this record too - especially on the song ‘Scumbag blues’ which by far is the best on the album. Some reminiscence of Zeppelin surely makes this my pick of the album. Jones is superb both on the bass and keyboard (which he rarely gets to play on the record) and so is Dave with Bonham like feel to his sound and rhythm. For a change, Josh with his falsetto sounds better than on any other track. To his credit however, his guitar playing is superb all through even though sometimes there are way too many riffs being overlapped for my liking. Maybe it’s just me with too much swamp rock in my veins these days.

I would have seriously fancied this album 10 years ago and it could still be good for many spins today but it would never make it to the top of my evening playlist barring a few selected tracks. Apart from ‘Scumbag blues’, I liked ‘Bandoliers’ simply because Josh Homme shows some vitality in his vocals along with a crisp riff which is not over the top as on most of the tracks. Listen to it purely for Dave’s brilliant drumming interleaved with Jones’s keyboard. ‘Elephants’ is one track that promises a great deal but fails to deliver in totality- still a very good number for headbanging- especially the initial salvo is huge on this track.

Overall, this is a decent rock record which would have been lost in oblivion if it had a different line up with no rock lineage. This is no Zeppelin or Nirvana record so keep your expectations in check and you could be pleasantly surprised.