Queens of the Stone Age – S/T [Expanded 2xLP] – New LP

Out June 21, 2024: the 2xLP expanded edition of Queens of the Stone Age's 1998 debut, self-titled album.  Queens of the Stone Age Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine: Hearing Queens of the Stone Age's long out of print debut many years after its initial 1998 release does pack the shock of revelation: Josh Homme’s tightly wound blueprint for QOTSA was in place from the very beginning. Where Homme’s previous outfit, Kyuss, were all about expansion, Queens of the Stone Age were about compression, Homme stripping stoner rock to its essence -- riffs as heavy as granite, solos as spacy as the desert sky. The songs on Queens of the Stone Age are shorter, pulled into focus by grinding fuzz riffs that anchor the proceedings even when the instrumental sections begin to drift into the ether. Another distinguishing factor in Queens of the Stone Age is that Homme writes full-blown songs -- pushing their two best songs, “Regular John” and “Avon,” to the front, giving them room to float later on -- so