It needs to be said that upon being given the advanced copy of this CD to review, I felt like I was handling Plutonium. Don't look directly at this. Don't point at it. Don't tell anyone you have it. Granted, when Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones decided to put a musical group together, they knew the levels of expectation and interest would be off the charts.

My half-witted and not-terribly-insightful observation of this CD is that it is EXACTLY what you think it will sound like, and that my friend is a really good thing. You hear your favorite elements of Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal and a little unknown band that never quite made it (Led Zeppelin) in every tune.

"No One Loves Me and Neither Do I" is going to blow your Decemberists CD right out of your player, out your front door and 2 blocks down. It will then lodge itself half way through a telephone pole. There is so much signature Zeppelin heaviness and so much of the humor of Josh Homme that you can't help but wonder if Robert Plant is secretly thinking, "dammit why did I make that sincere and sensitive Grammy award winning record with Allison Krauss when I could've been singing lines like, 'Well if sex is a weapon, then smash, boom, pow, how ya like me now? You can't always do it right, you can always do whats left.'"

When the Current first started playing the single "New Fang," I found myself singing the hook to Zeppelin's Dancing Days right along with it. Normally something like that might bug me but it's like making a record with 50 cent and nobody bragging about getting shot. Of course the Zep influence in both Grohl and Homme is huge and they honor it by surrounding that influence with their own brand of unique humor and rock.

My standout favorite song is "Mind Eraser, No Chaser." This is one sexy heavy petting zoo of a tune. You can hear the fun these dudes are having playing together at every turn and it makes you realize how rare that actually is.

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