"Rated R" - Classic or Dud?

NEWBIE! BWAHAHAHA! Where is my whip...;)

Just kidding. Honestly. Hmm, anyhow, I'd say dud. I can't really answer the question about At The Drive-In being as I've never really listened to their latest, so for all I know it could be somehow way more boring than Rated R, but judging by how bored I was listening to Rated R, I almost doubt it. To me, the album didn't even fall into the so-bad-it's-worth-talking-about category. it just sort of existed in that inbetween zone. It certainly was no album of the year: nothing new, nothing exciting, nothing interesting at all, it was immemorable.

*shrugs* It's a more baffling press fixation than the Magnetic Fields. It's something I'll never really understand, but hey. That's me.

NeWbIes SuX! At-ThE-dRiVe-In Sux! (They do, actually. ATDI, that is)

I'm actually more concerned about the press drooling over Macy Gray. A few more interviews and she'll explode (into a million rip off bands - yikes!). I don't rate 69Lovesongs that high. Still think the band deserves some positive reviews if only because people will now discover "Charm..."

Rated R lasted all of a month in my house before finding a new home via an exchange shop. From the reviews I was expecting something warped and heavy. No chance. Bad Nirvana with very bad drumming is how I heard it. Far too clean a production job too.

I have only heard 2 or 3 ATDI tracks on the radio, and there may have been something interesting going on beneath the nasty sqawking of the singer. It didn't interest me much.

Rare example of a record title that turned into a Kick Me! i.e. "Overrated R"

Success of QOTSA smacked of tokenism a bit - hey I don't like any rock records this year, better put this on the poll. It appeared on loads of indie kids' top 10 lists who liked nothing else remotely rockin' and I'd imagine this syndrome repeated at the NME caused poll victory. (This need not be tokenism - it might be a great crossover record - but I bought it and it didnt sound like a great anything to me).

I think also it appealed to some people who are desperate for a return to 'real' hard rock in the face of nu metal.

Question is - does it actually rock? Answer: not to my ears. The components are sometimes there - a riff here, a hook there, a backbeat somewhere else - but rarely in one place. Drugs single is awful. "Lost Art...." is good. When they do the poppy ones they sound suspiciously like Elastica.

So Rated R = Dud. What about ATDI? Mealy-mouthed singer spouting 'zany' nonsense - thumbs down to The Kids on this one but the music's OK.

I really lkd both and i agree with what was said about it appealig to those who waned "real" rock aopposed to nu-metal. Rated-R is a good clean rock album like mum sed to make - there's nothing there that will break barriers ad it isn't a patch on anything by Kyuss or early monster magnet, but it's nice to see an album like this make it.

ATDI is pretty good too thohi rearey play it. I see it as what RATM should have done instead of rereleasingthe same old album every 4 (too long for that kindof band) years.

Got the first Queens of the Stone Age album. Played it once, twice, filed it, didn't sell it, put it in the I'll-come-back-to-it category. That was 2-3 years ago so that third listen can't be far off. Exact same fate befell the only Kyuss CD I own. So in no rush to check out RATED R. (Er, in other words, I have no answer to this question. So here's another. Q: How many Stoner Rock fans does it take to change a lightbulb? A: It's cool, man.)

Thanks for your thoughts guys....

I feel that the media hype surrounding "Feelgood Hit of the Summer" in particular was unfounded.... that track deserved none of the praise heaped on it.... Whether or not they sound like Elastica is another thing...!!! I'll have to check that out later.....

The ATDI record is pretty slick though fellas.... granted the "vocal style" of their "vocalist" is a little suspect... as are the cod- poetry wank of the lyrics.... but the tracks themselves are ace.

Cheers.

'Relationship Of Command' (or whatever it was called) lasted approximately 23 hours in my collection, whereupon it went back to HMV. Rarely have I been so disappointed.

Rated R is the kind of record listened to almost exclusively by cooler-than-thou record store attendants (and their ilk) who smirk at you when you go to the counter to pay for the new Britney Spears single. They don't like QOTSA (nobody really likes them) but, hey, some of them used to be in Kyuss (who also were overrated by benighted music snobs) so obviously they're the greatest new band of the last year. DUD!

Dud but the last two Kyuss records had their moments esp when the godawful singer wasn't singing.

God if only Kyuss were an instrumental band. I don't know whether they'd be any better, but I can't listen to them at all with those silly vocals.

Fucking hype AGAIN. I think _Rated R_ is good, but not the next coming of John Holmes, Ron Jeremy, and Dick Rambone combined. You'd have to work for NME (& not be associated w/ the wonderful people on this board, of course) to think it's something like that. It's a grunge record - if Stone Temple Pilots made this sort of stuff, they'd get props. If Chris Cornell followed his muse instead of whatever the hell he was following, THIS sort of stuff would've followed _Down on the Upside_, instead of that "Sunshower" crud. (Can I say this enough? And I shudder to think what Cornell will 'create' w/ the rest of Rage.) If those idiot rock bands didn't continue reaming their copies of _Ten_ and went to the source of all that stuff, they'd sound like this.

I'm losing my patience with At the Drive-In, though. Iggy Pop is looking like the best thing on that record, and that upsets me very, very much. (I think it's because they "sold out". I'm sure their Fearless releases are pure, unadulterated godhead. And my faith will be restored.)

'Rated X' by Miles Davis - now there's yer classic...