2 keepers (not including "Hanging Tree")
keeper avg .222
Released one year before Queens of the Stone Age acclaimed album Songs For the Deaf (2002), Volumes 7 & 8 features an early version of "Hanging Tree" fronted by Mark Lanegan (complete with the screeching guitar drone after the chorus), and "Cold Sore Superstars" includes a variation on the chorus from "No One Knows" (2002). "Nenada," fronted by Eleven's Natasha Shneider and the less-accessible "The Idiots Guide" are not far from QOTSA at their most angular; in the latter Josh Homme juxtaposes his subtle falsetto over nearly atonal riffs. "Up in Hell", sung by (QOTSA producer) Chris Goss with Shneider, resembles Indian sitar music as interpreted by Led Zeppelin, like what Homme would do in Them Crooked Vultures (2009).
Other tracks are further afield or even contemplative. "Don't Drink Poison" emulates a strange Balkan folk with simulated balalaika. "Cold Sore Superstars" (the "sex and drugs are legal tender" song, fronted by Nick ElDorado (from LIKEHELL), comprises a minimal brit-poppy piano blurb and future part of "No One Knows" (see above). Tongue is planted firmly in cheek in goofs such as the hilarious mock- R&B "Covousier" ("really missed you since I killed you," ha ha, sung by Fred Drake (co-owner of The Desert Sessions home base)), the rocking "Polly Wants a Crack Rock****, also lead by Nick ElDorado (here he sounds like Nick Oliveri), and "Ending," a ridiculous (good-ridiculous) parody of every overly-dramatic big-rock song ending ever. But the album's high point is frequent Josh Homme collaborator Alain Johannes's ballad "Making a Cross"****; though in keeping with the style of his underrated band Eleven, the song's captivating melody and dynamic flow would lend itself well to other arrangements or interpretations.
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