By Queens of the Stone Age, 2000

Exclusive UK version of their 2000 album includes a bonus disc featuring 4 tracks, 'Never Say Never', 'You're So Vague', 'Who'll Be The Next In Line' and the controversial cd-rom video for the track 'Feel Good Hit Of The Summer' that's been banned. Slimline double jewel case. 2000 release.Call it "stoner rock" if you must, but the sophomore release from the Queens of the Stone Age moves mosh music into a woozier realm.

Which isn't to say it isn't plenty crunchy, but former Kyuss kingpin Josh Homme and company (including guests Mark Lanegan and Barrett Martin of the Screaming Trees) create an intoxicating brew by mixing metal, alt, and garage-rock elements together and making it smoke!--Steven StolderTrippy, forceful, and timeless, Rated R is rife with heavy, heady, trance-inducing post-hippie creations that recall Soundgarden and Fu Manchu. Singer/guitarist Josh Homme, founder of the defunct but much-worshipped "stoner-rock" band Kyuss, heads the group.

And while he's joined by guests such as Mark Lanegan and Barrett Martin of the Screaming Trees, it's the oddball songs rendered by Homme's sexy voice and searing guitars that make this album sing. Kudos too, to the producer Chris Goss, formerly of another remarkable band, Masters of Reality. The Bowie-like surrealism of "Auto Pilot" makes it this set's classic; in fact, much of Rated R presents dark, Cocteau-like idiosyncrasies, often aided by touches of surprising humor.

In the tongue-in-cheek-titled "The Feel-Good Hit of the Summer," the line "Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, marijuana, Ecstasy, and alcohol" is repeated like a mantra, while "Better Living Through Chemistry," is steeped in hallucinogenic sounds. The frenetic "Monsters in the Parasol" is sonically rich, its primal riffing best ingested loud and via headphones, while "Quick and to the Pointless," boasts a raucous MC5/Blue Cheer vibe. This wondrous sophomore effort defies all categorization, except cool.

--Katherine Turman

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