Essential? Not really. Fun as hell? Definitely.  Full text...

Sweat-soaked, slide-shimmering, sex-obsessed R 'n R at its awesomest.  Full text...

Death by Sexy rubs out the line between novelty and earnestness, reminding us that music doesn't have to be ironic to have a sense of humor.  Full text...

So, a grown-up EODM album, hardly serious, but certainly more complete than the half-cooked sketches that used to pass for their songs.  Full text...

Exile on Main Street with Get Behind Me Satan with Here are the Sonics!!!  Full text...

The album sounds plenty sleazy but not always fully cooked: Murkier cuts like "Eagles Goth" suffer from fuzzy production and tossed-off melodies, and the Hughes-penned "Ballad of Queen B and Baby Duck" -- about Homme's rocky courtship of Distillers singer Brody Dalle, who appears on the song -- sounds like a four-track demo.  Full text...

Most of Death by Sexy plays like the hard-rock equivalent to or a stripped-down version of anything in Motley Crue's catalog.  Full text...

It's not that Eagles of Death Metal aren't okay at what they do, and there's even some nice production that fills out the tiny guitar-with-drums combo. It's just that the band is a one-trick pony, which only allows for one stylistic direction -- straight head -- and, as a result, the line between lovingly rendered rock tribute and callous self-flagellation now sits at their heels.  Full text...