2000 - InternetEd: Rated R Review
by unknown
This band's lo-fi hard rock antics have gotten them quite far in recent years. Rated R, the band's second full-length album, is chock full of gritty guitar, sizzling vocals, and stoner speed anthems of intoxication. Many of the songs here combine elements we've all heard before like sludgy riffs, and bluesy lead lines with a subtle but trippy atmosphere. Though this is isn't the most original of records, it has its intense and even borderline brilliant moments. If nothing else, the music is varied enough to keep even the trudging stoner-speed songs moving.

The first track, "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer" is a full-on rock tune with bombastic rhythms and discordant guitar riffs, while "The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret" has a funky verse bass line and high-pitched chorus vocals that are heaped on top of a grungy wall of distorted guitars. "Leg Of Lamb" reminds of Beck in its vocally flat quirkiness, and "Auto pilot" is a great stoner rock song with bluesy lead guitar riffs. The spacey "Better Living Through Chemistry" is an interesting and eerie piece, as is "Monsters In The Parasol" with its funky '80's rhythms. The vocals are surprisingly intense, vomiting, and effect-laden in "Quick And To The Pointless," and "In The Fade" is a great bass-driven stoner masterpiece. "Lightning Song" is a transcendental song with subtle rhythms and entrancing melodies, while "I Think I Lost My Headache" is a vile earthen grunge rock song. Overall, Rated R is not a bad record, though it does fall prey to the traditional retro rock production heard on most stoner rock records.

go back
main » songs and releases » the band » tour history » articles and gallery » qotsa online