Eagles of Death Metal: Death By Sexy
By: Rinjo Njori

Jesse "The Devil" Hughes and Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) return for a second go-round with their primary and secondary projects (in that order), Eagles of Death Metal, picking up some spare parts along the way. On their newest album, Death By Sexy, bass duties are transferred from Baby Duck back to Homme and Joey Castillo steps in for Homme when his arms get too tired from drumming these demanding songs. Like virtually every other Josh Homme project, (Desert Sessions/QOTSA), Eagles Of Death Metal are essentially a Desert Palm love fest. Homme contributes the rhythm (drums, bass) and produces one hell of an album. Falsetto voiced front man Jessie "The Devil" Hughes turns out to be every bit the mustachioed psychotic he portrays in virtually every promotional picture. Somewhere Grant Norton from Husker Du is not happy.

Much less fractured than Peace Love Death Metal, Death By Sexy oozes sex, in a Boogie Nights kind of way. That is mostly "all good." The first song is about sex, as is song two and three. Only when you get to track four, "I Like To Move In The Night" do the sexual references reach innuendo. Tracks like "I Want You So Hard" and "Don't Speak (I Came to Make a BANG!)" are where the Eagles of Death Metal really shine. Their manic energy, whether natural or chemically induced, isn't wasted and stays surprisingly focused. At times Hughes channels his inner Jagger, especially on "Keep Your Head Up." "Eagle Goth" really has no place on Death By Sexy, but Hughes and Homme reach back to the early 80s and almost capture that Bauhaus feel in a bottle. All that is missing is the big tribal drum rhythm.

As they say, "It ain't all good." Partly great, most grating, "Solid Gold" goes off on bizarre tangents. "Chase the Devil" is part Cramps style rock with a little Bayou flavor and ends up sounding more like two different songs, both not that great.

Death By Sexy is better than Peace Love Death Metal for very different reasons. Peace Love Death Metal seemed more like a group who recorded a few good songs when they were playing around in the studio. When they hit, they hit and when they missed, you jumped on the floor to go to the next song. Their "very boring" banter takes up an unusual amount of time, killing the rhythm. Death By Sexy has Eagles of Death Metal finding their groove for the most part and taking us to the party.