In Times New Roman...

About

The deskbound among us might first interpret the title of Queens of the Stone Age’s eighth album as a reference to the font, but a few minutes with the music and you’ll realize that what Josh Homme refers to is a sense of decadence so total it ends with the city on fire. They remain, as ever, the hardest hard-rock band for listeners who don’t necessarily subscribe to the culture or traditions of hard rock, channeling Bowie (“Emotion Sickness”), cabaret (“Made to Parade”), and the collars-up slickness of British synth-pop (“Time & Place”) alongside the motorcycle-ready stuff you might you might expect—which they still do with more style than most (“Obscenery”). And like ZZ Top, they can rip and wink at the same time. But <i>In Times New Roman...</i> plumbs deeper personal territory than prior record. Homme has weathered the deaths of friend, the dissolution of his marriage, and other painful developments since the release of 2017’s Villain, and the album touches on all that—but he also wants to be clear about assumptions listeners could make from his lyric. “I would never say anything about the mother of my kids or anything like that,” he tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “But also, by the same token, you must write about your life, and I think I'm soundtracking my life. These songs and the words that go with them are an emotional snapshot where you stop the film, you pull out one frame. One song it's like, 'I'm lost.' And another one, 'I'm angry.' They need to be these distilled versions of that, because one drop of true reality is enough flavor. I think the hatred and adoration of strangers is like the flip side of a coin. But when you're not doing it for the money, that currency is worthle. I can't get involved in what the people say. In a way, it's none of my fucking busine.” .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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