Any effort to divert Dave Grohl from writing more Foo Fighters trifles like “Wheels” and return him to his rightful place behind the drum kit should be applauded. And the idea of him backing two equally mighty masters of their respective domains — Queens of the Stone Age axe-grinder Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin bassman John Paul Jones — should’ve resulted in a supergroup slam dunk. But the trio’s debut as Them Crooked Vultures is all amped up with nowhere to go, an assemblage of castaway Queens riffs that, lamentably, provides precious few opportunities to savour the sound of Jones interacting with the best hard-rock drummer this side of John Bonham’s grave. The full-throttle garage-rock ballast “Dead End Friends,” the blast-off bookends of “Elephants” and the “Kashmir”-ed funk breaks of “Reptiles” provide glimpses of the FM-radio fireworks this union should’ve yielded more of; sadly, the distended, seven-minute sprawl of “Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up” is more indicative of the Vultures’ bottom-feeding blooze.

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