Queens of the Stone Age test new musical paths on 'Perfecth'

By Daniel Okafor

Queens of the Stone Age's new album, Perfecth, moves the band into new musical directions, according to a World Cafe profile centered on frontman Josh Homme.

What was Josh Homme trying?

The profile begins with an accessory: the reporter notices Josh Homme fiddling with something on his belt before the interview starts in a recording studio.

The reporter asks, "What are you doing?"

Homme looks up. He holds a tiny metal cross charm on a hoop and laughs.

"I'm just trying things lately," he says.

He has been trying out belt charms, ornaments worn on a belt. The World Cafe profile presents the line as a compact description of the new album's creative instinct. It turns a small studio gesture into a way of talking about Perfecth's departure from familiar patterns.

The segment makes clear that the phrase reaches well beyond accessories. It follows the joke into the record and then into Homme's recent personal history. The profile connects that history to his renewed sense of adventure.

How does "trying things" shape Perfecth?

The profile treats that remark as a compact summary of the record: Perfecth branches into new musical directions rather than restating a settled musical formula.

That broad direction comes with a four-song set list (the songs featured in the segment):

• "It's Only Love"
• "Where the Goth Girls At?"
• "Run Away From the Mob"
• "Phantom Limb"

The list supplies the only song names. The segment does not unpack the songs separately or describe the changes in sound. It gives no release date, guest roster, label or account of the recording process.

Without those details, Perfecth's novelty remains a proposition rather than a demonstrated set of musical changes. The profile's charm is literal; its critical leverage is not.

What changed beyond the music?

Behind the studio joke sits the profile's account of a tumultuous few years, marked by personal upheaval and a couple of health scares for Homme.

World Cafe's judgement is carefully qualified. Homme has come through the turmoil seeming wiser and lighter, with a renewed sense of adventure. The profile does not say the scares caused the album. It uses them to explain why experimentation now carries a note of release.

It also gives a blunt verdict on the man: as a person and musician, Homme refuses to be boxed in. That refusal gives Perfecth its editorial frame. The album is presented as an expression of curiosity after strain, rather than a formal change of direction documented by musicians, engineers or producers.

The frame is persuasive, though the profile leaves the record's musical specifics largely unstated. Its reporting supports a mood, not a full stylistic verdict.

Who produced the World Cafe episode?

The episode closes with a production credit list, distributing editorial, technical, booking and executive work among six named World Cafe staff members for this segment.

• Kimberly Junod produced and edited the episode.
• Miguel Perez served as digital producer.
• Chris Williams served as World Cafe's engineer.
• Chelsea Johnson was programming and booking coordinator.
• Will Loftus served as line producer.
• Bruce Warren served as executive producer.

The World Cafe profile gives no release timetable or technical account of Perfecth. Its reporting establishes an attitude, not a complete map of the record.

The charm offers a clean model for the album: one small experiment can reveal a larger habit of mind. The album's next test is whether that private play becomes a public statement with enough specificity to support the profile's claim.