These Eagles Are Sexy As Hell

Eagles of Death Metal (EofDM) may have started as a joke between pals Jesse “The Devil” Hughes and Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, but its music has evolved from the kooky splendor of its 2004 debut, Peace Love Death Metal, into the serious delight of its new album, Death By Sexy. The album’s predominantly harder rock is also more polished—no minor feat given that it was recorded in eight days.Death By Sexy is loaded with distorted guitars and sex-drenched rockers, including the rave-up, “I Want You So Hard (Boy’s Bad News),” which evokes 50s and 60s rock with its rip-roarin’ riffs. “I Gotta Feeling (Just Nineteen)” is low-down, dirty cock rock (“I touch you there/Because I know the spot”), and “Shasta Beast” goes even more hilariously blatant in its sexuality.

Yet EofDM doesn’t confine itself to one sound, offering up the wacky “Solid Gold,” with its repeated exhortations to “Sweat!” and its high-pitched guitar, and the radio-friendly “Cherry Cola,” which marries fuzzy guitars to a pop melody enhanced by seductive background vocals from The Distillers’ Brody Dalle. Guest appearances by Mark Lanegan and Jack Black, among others, add to the album’s powerful mojo.

This mojo lessens somewhat on the bizarre-yet-oddly-endearing “The Ballad of Queen Bee and Baby Duck,” while “Poor Doggie” just sits there, but the album cranks back up with “Chase The Devil,” a Cramps-inspired blast of hepped-up psychobilly. Hughes even drops his Elmo-on-the-brink-of-puberty falsetto on the droning-yet-funny “Eagles Goth.” The only real misfire is the skippable hillbilly gospel of “Bag O’ Miracles.”

The polishing of EofDM’s sound makes Death By Sexy a much stronger album than Peace Love Death Metal while retaining that effort’s goofy charm and musical surprises. There’s a lot of sexy fun on this album, and the band’s willingness to expand its horizons bodes well for future releases.