One can only imagine how excited Dave Grohl and Josh Homme were about getting to make an album with...scratch that, be in a band with John Paul Jones. Though Homme and Grohl's music reeks of Americana, the influence of Zeppelin was there for all to hear. Of course, supergroups are rarely that; far more often they are bloated, smug, self congratulatory wank fests. But surely Them Crooked Vultures would see the sheer joy of two talented musicians working with one of their idols win out over complacent back slapping?

Well, sort of. There's no doubt that Them Crooked Vultures sounds like it was a lot of fun to make. The riffs strut in all the right places, the vocals are suitably dripping in filth ("She asked me if I could use a dirty bitch? Of course") and Grohl, back where he belongs, hits the drums suitably ferociously. But rarely do you get a sense of the three inspiring each other to go to places outside of their default setting. Essentially, if you've heard 'New Fang', you've heard Them Crooked Vultures. It is a seemingly never ending cycle of funky yet vaguely sloppy drum intro followed by swaggering guitar and rolling bass. It is, in truth, no better than an average Queens of the Stone Age album, and nowhere near the level of an average Led Zeppelin album. Of course, it's still markedly more entertaining than a Foo Fighters album.

There are moments of fun to be had, of course, and there's a certain primal suss to proceedings that can be fleetingly exciting. The sheer weight of 'Dead End Friends'' riff is enough to batter the listener into submission, while the utter weirdness of the album's one curveball, the almost tribal 'Interlude With Ludes' is in itself enough to suggest that these three musicians could, maybe, have produced something interesting. I'm not certain, though, as the overriding impression is of three people whose best days are well behind them messing about in the studio. Sadly, despite periods of brilliance in his career, I wonder whether Homme in particular is actually capable of anything more than that. Jack White comes from a comparable swamp blues background, but is constantly finding ways to push his own musical boundaries. It doesn't always work - the Dead Weather album sounds limp next to their bone rattling live sound - but even with each failure I find myself respecting White's outlook all the more. Homme, however, looks more and more like a talented one trick pony, and no self indulgent 'super' group is going to change that.