Awesome Music / Queens of the Stone Age

Queens of the Stone Age are an American hard rock band, with a shitload of Awesome Music.

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Queens of the Stone Age

• "Avon" with its extremely catchy "to to to to tooo" in the chorus.
• Once you hear "If Only", you just won't be able to forget its main riff.
• "You Can't Quit Me Baby" is already ridiculously awesome, but some live versions which last over 20 minutes are even better.
• "Mexicola" kicks all kinds of ass, especially with its bass opening. The main riff is great as well.
• "How to Handle a Rope (A Lession in the Lariat)" has a simple, but awesome riff that complements the depressing lyrics well.
• "Walkin' on the Sidewalks" starts off with two and a half minutes of badass rock and cryptic lyrics before the band starts playing a massive, lumbering dinosaur of an Epic Riff, accompanied by a fantastic Josh Homme guitar solo. Just try not to headbang to it.

Rated R

• "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" is a musical Binge Montage and it's amazing. From the bassline to Josh's broken record list of drugs, it sure does sound like a feel good hit.
• "Auto Pilot", sung by Oliveri, with trippy riffs and the constant sensation that you're just chilling in the desert under the effect of some Mushroom Samba.
• "Quick and to the Pointless" and "Tension Head", both wonderfully screamed by Nick Oliveri. The Last Note Nightmare on the latter leaves quite the impact.
• "I Think I Lost My Headache" is 5 minutes of epic rocking, with a 3 minute long jazz freak out at the end.
• "Better Living Through Chemistry" sounds like the apocalypse coming through your speakers.

Songs for the Deaf

• "A Song for the Dead", especially with Mark Lanegan on vocals. Currently used as the finale of many of their live sets.
• Speaking of Mark Lanegan, "Hangin' Tree" also stands out, and not just because of its 5/4 meter.
• Songs for the Deaf is an album filled to the brim with badass hard rock. Then comes "Mosquito Song". Chills guaranteed.
• "Six Shooter", short, extremely powerful and intense, with Oliveri going completely insane in the vocals, something that only makes the Miniscule Rocking of this song more memorable.
• "The Sky Is Fallin'" has incredible guitar riffs on top of a pulsating drum beat and almost poetic lyrics.
• "You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar..." with its brilliant use of Soprano and Gravel delivered by Oliveri.
• "No One Knows" is regarded as one of the band's highest points, ditto for "Go with the Flow".

Lullabies to Paralyze

• "Someone's in the Wolf" is easily the most intense song of the album, especially when, after about 20 seconds of almost silence, THAT riff kicks in, eventually accompanied by Josh's haunting voice and some of the best drum techniques displayed by the band on their whole career.
• "You Got a Killer Scene There, Man" is one of these songs where not a lot happens, yet it's still completely awesome.
• "Little Sister" proves that cowbells and electric guitars are a winning combination. It also has one of the best choruses of their whole career. It gets even better when Eddie Vedder plays said cowbell.
• "Tangled Up in Plaid" is probably the most catchy (and awesome) song about a destructive relationship ever.
• "Burn the Witch", if only for the opening bass line.
• "In My Head" is an easy-to-sing-along song about a man and his lover, whom he keeps thinking about, playing their favorite song together. Evidenced in the following lyric:
  I keep on playing our favorite song
  I turn it up while you're gone
  It's all I got when you're in my head
  And you're in my head so I need it

Era Vulgaris

• "Turnin' on the Screw", the album's opener, has a brilliant riff and awesome lyrics.
• "Misfit Love" is a great hard rock song for about the first two thirds, then becomes somewhat more melodic and emotional during the final third. It works brilliantly.
• All three the bonus tracks from the Japanese (and some other) versions:
  • "The Fun Machine Took a Shit & Died". Basically everything about this one is awesome, the title, the riff, the drums and so on. Bonus points for including the following lyric:
    You're ten pounds of shit
    In a five pound bag
  • "Era Vulgaris". It's a really big shame this isn't on the album regularly, with it being the title track and all, because it's ridiculously good. It also has a guest appearance by Trent Reznor.
  • "Running Joke" is probably the most emotional songs the Queens ever wrote. "Just look at you nooooooooow!"
• That riff is sick, sick, sick. Extra points for a stealthy vocal performance from Julian Casablancas.
• "Make It wit Chu" might just take the title of "best song about sex ever".
• "I'm Designer" has an awesome riff played on a purposefully out of tune guitar, and it sounds amazing. The sarcastic, humorous, deadpan lyrics only make this all better.
  You made me an offer that I can refuse
  'Cause either way I get screwed
  Counterproposal: I go home and jerk off
• "Battery Acid" is one of the most wild tracks in the band's discography. Weird, trippy, and downright maniacal with a wild energy and unique guitar riffs!
• "3's and 7's" in all of its gritty, rebellious nature.

...Like Clockwork

• There is not one thing about "Smooth Sailing" that doesn't scream "badassery anthem of the century".
• "I Appear Missing" is one of their best songs. It starts as a straightforward rock song (albeit with Dave Grohl on drums, which makes it better than most other straightforward rock songs), then around the 3 minute mark the song just stops, then comes back, then sounds like it collapses on itself. All of this leads up to an incredible guitar solo, with some gut wrenching lyrics afterwards.
  Don't cry
  With my toes on the edge it's such a lovely view
  Inside
  I never loved anything until I loved you
  Inside
  I'm over the edge, what can I do?
  Inside
  I've fallen through
• "Kalopsia" which uses the soft verse, loud chorus dynamic to brilliant effect. Trent Reznor's special appearance as backing vocalist makes it all even better.
• "Keep Your Eyes Peeled" is very reminiscent of Electric Wizard, and yes, it is fantastic.
• "My God Is the Sun" has a great, simple riff that fits the album's haunting and intense nature, and the song gets more intense and dominant as it progresses.

Villains

• Album opener "Feet Don't Fail Me" begins with pounding drums, Ominous Latin Chanting, a buzzing synthesizer, and some of Homme's most distorted guitar playing yet, before transitioning into a plain epic track that switches between upbeat and awesome and dark and ominous, which, aided by Homme's lyrics on his early life in and around Palm Desert, serves as a welcome introduction to the new sound of the album, if "The Way You Used To Do" didn't win you over. Speaking of that...
• "The Way You Used To Do" is catchy as fuck. The music video makes it better, with Josh Homme evocating the image of the Devil, reflecting the track very well and blending into the album's theme.
• "Fortress" is an awesomely melancholic track with new wave-style synths mixed in with beautifully layered vocals and guitar riffs.
• "Un-Reborn Again" has an extremely unique air about it. Lyrics that invoke the image of the "Fountain of Youth" and the notion of failing just before reaching the goal ("Buried so close to the fountain of youth I can almost reach"), with hypnotizing riffs and a potent outro that devolves into choirs at one point.
  There's gotta be somewhere to bury the pain
  Come drink from the water before it's been drained away
  Every drop like an ocean, every moment undone
  Implosions of beauty back to where we begun
  There's gotta be somewhere to bury the proof
  Everybody was drowning in the fountain of youth
  Screaming, du-du, du-du, du-du, la-di-duh...
• "Head like a Haunted House" mixes crazy riffs with eerie beats that sounds like a tribute to the Dead Kennedys.
• "The Evil Has Landed". Funk/rock-like guitar riffs and solos that dominate the entire song even over Josh's lyrics, a catchy beat, the very lyrics working as a way to discard concepts of "good and evil" and just embrace the moment...
  Going on a living spree
  Plenty wanna come with me
  You don't wanna miss your chance
  Near-life experience