Do The Damage That Needs Gettin’ Done

Queens of the Stone Age “Smooth Sailing”

I’d say that this is the best sleaze rock song of the year, but how much competition does it really have, even over the past several years? You can tell how much the band is delighting in the raunchiest of this song’s groove, but at the same time, you can also tell Josh Homme is smirking at his own lyrics. It’s an over the top parody of rock star dirtbag ego, but it’s also a celebration of that particular type of swagger – Homme surely embodies it up to a point. Part of what makes this song work so well is that he knows just how to dig into the listener’s insecurity, and turn even sorta repellant aspects of this into an aspirational status. For example, this is how he describes everyone who isn’t quite so debauched: “Fear is the hand that pulls your strings / a useless toy / pitiful plaything.” “Smooth Sailing” is, in contrast, the joy that comes from not giving a fuck about anything but indulging in your own pleasure.

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