“Go With the Flow” by Queens of the Stone Age

"Go with the Flow" comes off Songs for the Deaf, Queens of the Stone Age's 2002 album, and went out as a single in April 2003. Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri wrote it, and it's the odd one out among the record's singles: the only one without Dave Grohl behind the kit. Gene Trautmann plays drums instead, and he left the band while the album was still being made.

Not that you'd notice anything missing. Trautmann drives it like a getaway car, a relentless, pounding eighth-note gallop, while Homme and Brendon McNichol stack up guitars that buzz and churn, and Oliveri's bass digs in underneath. Homme's lead vocal floats cool and melodic over the stampede, with Oliveri adding backing vocals, and the chorus is so sweet it almost feels like a trick. Homme produced it with Adam Kasper and Eric Valentine, and Kasper engineered and mixed, keeping it tight, loud and gleaming.

It earned a nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 46th Grammy Awards.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.