Gone are the times when these masters of stoner rock waved their throbbing heavy guitars while scrunching their eyebrows… Twenty years after forming their band under the Californian sun and palm trees, Queens Of The Stone Age have skilfully evolved without ever selling out. With Villains, Josh Homme and his crew have even taken on a rather unexpected passenger in the name of… Mark Ronson! Two years after his giant hit Uptown Funk carried by the voice of Bruno Mars, the Londoner who exploded onto the mainstream scene with his work on Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black, finds himself producing QOTSA’s seventh album, which unlike usual doesn’t feature any guest. And the result fits in perfectly with this iconoclastic partnership: the band’s usual virile and sparkly rock’n’roll (irresistible on their single The Way You Used To Do) is beefed up by an energetic production. And Ronson’s funky and groovy DNA blends in with the Californians’, more Bowiesque than ever (obvious on Un-Reborn Again). By the way, isn’t the title Villains echoing the Thin White Duke’s Heroes? © MD/Qobuz