Queens of the Stone Age, a band infamous for taking long hiatuses between releases, have been on a bit of a roll lately. The release of ‘In Times New Roman…’ in 2023 was a shot in the arm for the desert rock legends, who’ve seen fit to bless us with an exciting hubbub of news since: last year’s ‘Alive in the Catacombs’ EP went down an absolute storm, and the band are already back with another record to chew on. If only ‘Perfecth’ actually had any meat on its bones…

The group’s ninth studio album may just be the biggest curveball they’ve hit us with to date, but it isn’t coming out of nowhere— the time Homme and company spent in the passageways beneath Paris has clearly inspired them to go in a softer direction, and if the frontman’s comments are to be believed, this could be the beginning of a new chapter for Queens of the Stone Age. There are raucous moments to be found here, most notably on ‘Where The Goth Girls At?’ and the ending of ‘Run Away From the Mob,’ but another ‘Songs For The Deaf,’ this is not. In some ways, ‘Perfecth’ falls in line with the melancholy that overtook 2013’s ‘…Like Clockwork,’ but again, this crop of tunes is utterly determined to stand apart. The desert rock outfit are making a show of stripping their sound down: why, then, do they seem so hesitant to actually explore this new territory?

To be quite honest, there just isn’t much meaningful material to chew on here, a shocking statement to make concerning a band like Queens of the Stone Age. The tracklist that makes up ‘Perfecth’ is the shortest they’ve ever put together, and by quite a margin at that— hell, the record isn’t that much longer than the ‘Alive in the Catacombs’ EP, despite housing nearly double the number of songs! Opener ‘It’s Only Love’ should be a gentle introduction to the crooning balladry to come, but its tired performances and interruption-via-train instead act as a warning signal of the project’s barebones nature (and of its utterly dry production as well). The album experience is simply not robust enough to earn glorified interludes ‘Mono’ and ‘From the Cliff,’ even if the acoustic guitars of the latter are pretty enough in isolation.

It’s worrying to see the band, who’ve managed to reinvent themselves time and time again over the past thirty years, struggle to fill their latest outing with worthwhile inclusions, let alone solid ones. The strongest cuts that ‘Perfecth’ has to offer were its lead-off singles, a fact that really leaves the rest of the album out to dry— the Eric Clapton-esque blues rock of ‘Insignificant Other’ and the charming presentation of ‘Easy Street’ may be worlds apart from one another, but they’re both songs we’d be glad to return to. As for third single ‘Where The Goth Girls At?,’ we can’t offer up the same praise for this absolute drag of a tune, complete with a main riff that has Queens of the Stone Age veering dangerously close to self-parody. The record’s choice highlights are merely teasing at a greater potential, one we can only hope to see come to fruition down the line.

Truly, what else is even worthy of discussion here, on a tracklist that always seems to be showing itself the door? The likes of ‘Phantom Limb’ and ‘Run Away From the Mob’ aren’t so withdrawn as they are completely absent, throwing in classic Queens of the Stone Age wordplay that isn’t so charming without their usual swagger— the way the latter transitions from a middling Bronski Beat impression into such a limp rock’n’roll climax is genuine cause for concern. The only other number left to tear apart is a ‘cover’ of Iggy Pop’s ‘Sunday,’ a track Homme first penned a decade ago. It’s a song we’ve been able to enjoy since before ‘Villains’ was released, and one we’d rather hear as part of ‘Post Pop Depression:’ once again, the cut screams of a band scrambling to fill out an album with little substance to its name.

The name ‘Perfecth’ refers to something that isn’t quite spot-on, but it doesn’t quite fit a record that’s so incredibly off the mark. The idea of Queens of the Stone Age capitalising on the success of their recent Catacombs tour is an exciting one, and the band do hint at their potential in this lane. Nonetheless, we’d be lying if we said this wasn’t the weakest entry in the group’s celebrated discography, and that’s a damn shame.