The worst thing about supergroups is that they're never as much fun on record as they are on paper. Putting Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, Nirvana and Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones together in the studio and on the road seems like a no-brainer, a lineup of all-star--if not Hall of Fame--caliber, but does it work in practice?

Them Crooked Vultures [ tickets ]' self-titled debut answers that question with a resounding: mostly! The album gets off to an unfortunately laggard start, first with the bland refried boogie "Nobody Loves Me & Neither Do I," followed by the generic rave-up "Mind Eraser, No Chaser," both of which sound like they could have fallen off an April Wine disc from 1981.

The barbed "New Fang" helps the album turn a corner into something approaching sunlight with Grohl's mini-Bonham drumwork carrying the tune forward to align with Jones' smart basslines and Homme's snappy vocals and guitar, while the following "Dead End Friends" sounds like it could have been plucked off any of the last several QOTSA albums, a trend that continues throughout the remainder of the set.

"Scumbag Blues" drives the point home with a hammering chorus and one of Homme's two signature vocal styles, a keening, high-pitched wail (the other one being a mid-register moan with more than a hint of menace). The interplay between the three veteran musical masterminds is on full display here, with most of the latter half of the cut devoted to a squared-off jam session ending with concise guitar work from either Homme or Queens of the Stone Age's Alain Johannes, who appeared on the album and has also been accompanying the band on tour.

While Homme dominates the proceedings with his vocals and trademark desert-punk touches, and Grohl reminds everyone what the world has been missing with his post-Nirvana abandonment of the drum kit in favor of the frontman position, Jones' roles is less defined, sliding back and forth between his still-keen ability to hammer down into a deep bass groove and subtle mastery of the keyboards, always an underrated weapon in the Zeppelin arsenal.

A stronger Zep influence invades halfway through the album's fifth cut, "Elephants," when the song takes a sudden turn into "Kashmir" territory before returning to Homme's comfort zone, a lockstep QOTSA-style dirge that dominates most of the six-minute-plus tune. The band later returns to Jones' spiritual homeland on "Reptiles," which merges "Southbound Suarez" and "Carouselambra" from 1979's "In Through the Out Door" to strong effect.

Further along, "Warsaw or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up" ventures into Doors territory, oddly enough, while "Caligulove" allows Jones more opportunities to vamp with the Hammond organ. Heaviness abounds on "Gunman," then comes to full fruit on the album's closer, "Spinning in Daffodils," a relentless but somewhat pointless eight minutes of groove-and-shuffle featuring almost two minutes of fadeout.

"Them Crooked Vultures" won't elbow "Nevermind" or "Physical Graffiti" out of most people's record collections, but it both earns and rewards repeated listens, and proves that supergroups in the modern era aren't necessarily doomed to disappoint.