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Record Review: Eagles Of Death Metal’s “Heart On”

For every Eagles Of Death Metal devotee letting loose the devil horns, there’s usually a dumbfounded friend using those same digits to scratch his head. What’s so polarizing about a pair of sex-obsessed, former high-school pals getting their teenage garage-rocks off, anyway? Perhaps it has something to do with the notion that one of said pals, drummer Josh Homme, saves his “real” art for Queens Of The Stone Age. Or maybe it’s the sheer audacity of singer/guitarist Jesse Hughes’ porn-star mustache. Nevertheless, the duo’s third LP won’t reconcile the two camps; in fact, Heart On may be the first EODM album to really make the detractors’ case.

Chugging riffs and falsetto vocals abound on these 12 tracks, but instead of indulging whatever black magic that kept 2004’s Peace Love Death Metal and 2006’s Death By Sexy from devolving into jokey karaoke, Hughes and Homme decide to play it mostly straight. The one stab at reclaimed cock rock, “High Voltage,” can’t get it up, while “Now I’m A Fool,” with its ooh-la-la-la harmonies and salient solos, verges on the balladic. It’s obvious that these Eagles don’t care to be thought of as a mere novelty act. Less obvious is whether they should aim to be anything more. [Downtown]

—Noah Bonaparte Pais