Supergroups have been a common fad in the music industry over the past decade. Unfortunately, though most of these conglomerations of superstars seem like great ideas (Rage Against the Machine's instrumentalists plus Soundgarden's singer, anyone?), they've usually imploded after one or two mediocre albums — largely due to the huge egos at play. Them Crooked Vultures, on the other hand, seeks to legitimize the concept of the supergroup with their eponymous debut album.
The Vultures feature a lineup that would seem almost too good to be true for many rock fans. Josh Homme, of Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age, plays guitar and sings; Dave Grohl, of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, gets back behind the drum set; and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin rounds out the group on bass and keyboards. The trio almost lives up to the immense hype it generated, creating a promising, albeit flawed, album.
Them Crooked Vultures' sound is steeped in a classic rock style that Jones' original band pioneered. The instrumentals whip up an intensity lacking in most of Homme and Grohl's recent work, creating energetic, catchy songs that infuse modern production with the hard-working sensibilities of the past. Grohl in particular seems revitalized, delivering a career-topping, tenacious drum performance; he proves to be a master at changing the beat in unexpected ways.
What sets the Vultures apart from other retro-rock groups like Wolfmother and Jet is their refusal to merely mimic past classics. Homme's vocals and guitar work are distinctly his own; he doesn't aspire to be a Jimmy Page or Jimi Hendrix. For example, though the tune "Scumbag Blues" bears a resemblance to Cream's powerhouse blues classics, Homme's spiky guitar hooks and Jones' grooving keyboard infuse the track with a modern freshness.
Other highlights include "Mind Eraser, No Chaser" and lead single "New Fang." The former features incredibly catchy vocal exchanges between Grohl and Homme, while the latter swings hard, with a memorable slide-guitar melody. Later on, Homme's delicate leads add a mellow touch to "Bandoliers," a track that successfully blends psychedelia with the group's organic core sound.
Throughout these songs, Homme sings abstract lyrics about typical rock subject matter such as sex and drugs. Though lines like, "When I control, you will despair/ Sycophancy, solipsistic," seem to indicate that the members spent too many nights reading the dictionary, Homme's detached falsetto usually incorporates the words into the music with finesse. He can't salvage every line, though: "I'm gonna smother you with my love/ Forever and ever, also forever," sounds incredibly awkward as he sings against a sparse arrangement on "Interlude with Ludes."
This song also marks the beginning of a dramatic drop-off in quality that occurs in the last section of the album. The song, a drugged-out trip through creepy, echoing vocals, turns out to be four minutes of wasted space. "Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up" and album closer "Spinning in Daffodils" are both bloated, seven-minute messes that try to be psychedelic but end up treading through tedious, repetitive jams.
The few redeeming moments in the album's second half include the multi-textured outro to "Caligulove" and the bouncing main riff in "Gunman." Unfortunately, the other parts of these songs are utterly forgettable and uninspired.
With a length of around 66 minutes, "Them Crooked Vultures" is a distended work that starts off promisingly but loses steam partway through. If the band had removed the section beginning with "Interlude with Ludes" from the album, the result would've been a satisfying disc with a running time comparable to the fabled records of classic rock's prime. Succinct songs like "New Fang" and "Scumbag Blues" simply outshine their twice-as-long counterparts.
Despite their missteps, Them Crooked Vultures are already an incredibly tight outfit capable of writing exciting, catchy songs. If Homme, Jones and Grohl decide to stay together, they'll hopefully refine their core sound and prune out their mistakes on later efforts. The Vultures aren't content to scavenge their original bands for ideas, and this results in a solid debut.
