Soon after Lady Gaga released her latest single, “Perfect Illusion,” on Friday, word came out that Queens of the Stone Age mastermind Josh Homme played guitar on the track. Even before we knew that, we listened to the song just to hear what it sounded like, knowing it would be everywhere (in fact, we went to the convenience store by our office an hour later and it was already on the radio there). Our take on the song – it’s fine, sounds like a Lady Gaga song, no more, no less. If you like her, you’ll love this song, if not, it’s a typical pop song.
After hearing Homme was on it, we went back and listened for that signature Josh Homme sound. Sadly, after a nondescript guitar intro that pretty much could have been played by anyone, the guitar kind of drops out and might as well not even be on the song. Then we listened with headphones on, just in case we missed the nuance. Nope, it’s hard to tell that anyone’s playing guitar on the song, but at least the noted classic metalhead has bragging rights that she got Homme on a track. Did he play on the rest of her album? No one knows yet, but you can check out the song below or buy it here. That song was produced by BloodPop and Mark Ronson) with help from Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, so now Homme has three people to blame if they neutered the guitars from what he laid down.
