Heart-On

Eagles of Death Metal

Downtown

Nov 01, 2008 Year End 2008 - Best of 2008 By Pasquale Iannone

Formed a decade ago as a side-project for Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and his childhood friend Jesse Hughes, Eagles of Death Metal, like The Raconteurs, have quickly become a riotously popular and profitable live act whose success threatens to overshadow the band-members’ more established groups.

EODM are purveyors of unashamedly kitsch, priapic rock which Hughes colorfully (and not inaccurately) describes as “butt-fucking The Rolling Stones with Devo, Little Richard, Steely Dan, and Mary J. Blige.” The group’s third album is a familiarly high-octane, fuzz-drenched effort. Songs lamenting the vacuity of Hollywood sit alongside tongue-in-cheek tunes such as “(I Used to Couldn’t Dance) Tight Pants” and the ode to self-love, “Solo Flights” (“I close my eyes and picture you/I cut out all the aggravation”). The album’s standout track “Now I’m a Fool” features the album’s most sublime riff. Along with “I Want You So Hard (Boy’s Bad News),” the song is probably EODM’s finest to date.

Lyrically, while occasionally amusing, the album too often drifts into banality (“I came to L.A. to make some rock and roll/Along the way I had to sell my soul”). As a result, Heart-On, despite its snarling, strutting riffs, feels disappointingly lightweight. (www.eaglesofdeathmetal.com)

Author rating: 5/10

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Average reader rating: 3/10