Songs for the Deaf

Queens’ third album is a pitch-perfect blend of garage rock, heavy metal, and psychedelia played with plenty of muscle and a devilish sense of humour. Old-fashioned without ever sounding like a throwback, aggressive but groovy, the album is framed as a broadcast from some distant desert radio station—a nod to the band’s roots in Palm Desert, CA, where everything feels severe, sunbaked, and just a little weird. With Dave Grohl on drums and appearances by Dean Ween and Mark Lanegan, this is about as good as serious 21st-century rock gets.