The Desert Sessions
Volumes 9 & 10

THE REVIEW

Reviewing the “Desert Sessions” is always a spectacle. For two reasons: the first is that a lot of well-known figures from the stoner scene and beyond participate, which might make some people wrinkle their noses, as individuals of that caliber could create a mishmash of all their influences without concluding anything; that’s not the case here since at the helm is Josh Homme , who at the time (we are talking about 2003) was a veritable mine of (good) ideas. So far, everything seems okay.

The second reason is that, being a kind of “side project” for Homme, these records contain more “alternative” material compared to the base groups' releases. To explain myself better: a QOTSA album is indeed alternative, but a “Desert Sessions” surpasses it in terms of the number of experiments and sounds. And that’s the beauty, the experimentation that Homme tries in his studio in the desert (hence the name), done as goats, all together passionately. In volume 9 and 10, besides the “usual suspects” Castillo, Chris Goss, and Troy van Leeuwen, we find a truly in-shape PJ Harvey, Jeordie White (aka Twiggy Ramirez) bassist for NiN, APC, and Marilyn Manson (enough?), Dean Ween (Ween), and Alain Johannes (Eleven). Not a bad lineup. As I said, there are many experiments. The one who seems to have left the most mark is PJ Harvey, as in “Powered Wig Machine” and “Holey Dime” we find electronic drums and distortions typical of her “Is This Desire?” Even “A Girl Like Me” highlights her voice, almost provoking a sense of wantonness on her part. More acoustic, country-like tracks such as “Creosote”, more incisive and hammering like “There Will Be a Better Time”, and with the flavor of a little song like “I’m Here for Your Daughter”, are interludes to “Robot Rock” tunes like “In My Head”, “I Wanna Make it Wit Chu” (featured in subsequent QOTSA releases), and “Crawl Home”.

There’s also room for the anarchy of “Covered in Punks Blood”, with guitar, bass, and drums chasing each other (great work by the latter, adeptly played by the good Castillo); the bittersweet opening of “Dead in Love” with its ending of piano + electrified, effect-laden guitar; “Subcutaneous Phat”, a typical example of good rock and a good bass line. It concludes with “Bring it Back Gentle”, perhaps the most normal and without highlights of the album. What to say: once again, Homme and associates have forged a rock record that certainly won’t make it into the annals of music in terms of originality, but nonetheless offers something different to the usual rock music that circulated at the time in various rock radio-TV schedules. Listenable and enjoyable even by less experienced ears or those of different genres, a record played wholly and without much post-production trickery. And perhaps that’s where its strength lies.

Rating: 7+