Queens of the Stone Age - Lullabies to Paralyze

I’ve always dug Queens of the Stone Age, as I happened across “Monsters in the Parasol” on some random download search way back when, Rated R era. I thought the follow up (Songs for the Deaf) was excellent, and this time around, QOTSA proves they are have cornered the market on producing the best melodic sludge ever. Now at number five on the Billboard charts, Queens’ new album, the first without Homme’s former Kyuss partner Nick Oliveri, is a straightforward rock album that’s aimed as much for the 20-something group as well as the high school rockers. Less zany and prog/stoner original than Songs for the Deaf, it’s got more hooks (just type in the band’s name on a file-sharing program and it’s all about “Little Sister”) that make the album more commercially viable, but it’s still a pretty rad effort. Standout tracks are “Burn the Witch,” with enough indifferent fuzz effects and Josh Homme’s vocals swelling up from the bottom of a well of thick tom drumming, and the equally hard-knocking “The Blood is Love.” The slow burn of “I Never Came” shows off Queens’ forte of climbing guitars and arrangement; whereas “Broken Box” maintains that Queens of the Stone Age are one of the few bands around these days that can pull of a combination of goofy and sexy and raunchy (sample lyric: “Take that fucking pussy elsewhere.”) The “ridden-hard-and-put-away-wet” bass intro and whispered crooning vocals betray the listener on “You’ve Got A Killer Scene There, Man…” which has guest vocalists Shirley Manson (Garbage) and Homme’s woman Brody Dalle (the Distillers)… Where? The caterwauling blues guitar on this song is it’s best feature, but Brody and Shirley? Couldn’t hear ‘em. Mark Lanegan is back again, sounding like a stoned spook (and that’s a good thing) on the intro track “This Lullaby” and the loping “Tangled Up in Plaid.” And though Dave Grohl is not lending his heavy-hitting drum skills to QOTSA again, new drummer Joey Castillo is pretty good if not as aggressive, complementing A Perfect Circle/ perpetual moonlighting bassist Troy van Leeuwen’s thorough thwacking bass on tracks like “Skin on Skin.” Overall, Lullabies to Paralyze is a great album, groovy and mellow with some superb musicianship and catchy tunes, and it sounds like Queens of the Stone Age without being redundant (re: boring). Just don’t expect any “C-c-c-c-c-co-CAINE!”-esque moments, which is something I miss; therefore, demerit the album for lack of their old charming loony originality. [www.qotsa.com]