“Straight Jacket Fitting” by Queens of the Stone Age

Queen of the Stone Age’s “In Times New Roman…” is one of the more-interestingly titled albums to come out in 2023. But it isn’t until “Straight Jacket Fitting”, the final song on its playlist, that said title is mentioned in the lyrics.

“Times New Roman”, as generally understood, is the name of a commonly-used font that you find within programs like Microsoft Word. But as presented in these lyrics, we are all alone in times new Roman”, which is not a proper noun in whole but rather a concept. 

And in context, it would seemingly be another way of saying that whereas the Roman Empire officially ceased to exist some 2,000 years ago, currently we are living in a new or updated version of it, i.e. ancient Roman culture being manifested in modern times.

“What can you do?
We’re all alone in times new Roman, no allegiance
Chasing your wish over the cliff
If you insist on daydreaming
Wake up, we need you
No more daydreaming
Don’t fall asleep now”

Josh goes on to allude that what he is more specifically referring to is a world marked by individual confusion, self-doubt, lack of allegiance and one’s mind being more set in fantasy than reality. More generally, what he seems to be getting at is that we have the tendency to believe that the repressive lifestyle which the mainstream espouses for us is actually a form of freedom and safety. 

And that, as revealed in the first verse, would apparently be the “straight jacket fitting” noted in the title, i.e. conforming to the mainstream being a form of basically placing one’s self in bondage.

And whereas we do know that official slavery was common Roman society, these lyrics do not make it clear why Queens of the Stone Age are likening modern society to that Ancient Rome. It feels as if, in a way, they bit off more than they chew in terms of what they set out to lyrically encapsulate in this track. 

That is to say that we have come across plenty of songs of this same nature – which posit that adhering to the idealized lifestyle of today’s world is actually a form of self-entrapment – yet which are a lot less convoluted than “Straight Jacket Fitting”.

Release of “Straight Jacket Fitting”

“Straight Jacket Fitting” is track No. 10 on the playlist of Queens of the Stone Age’s album “In Times New Roman…”.  The song was released on 16th June 2023, the same day as its album.

Writers and Producers

Production and writing duties for the song were accomplished through a joint effort from the members of the band. And as of this writing, the band’s lineup has the following artists:

• Dean Fertita
• Jon Theodore
• Josh Homme
• Michael Shuman
• Troy Van Leeuwen