Queens of the Stone Age have always been at a strange nexus of underground and mainstream: too arty for wide acceptance in the nu-metal radio formats and too metal for a lot of indie fans. However, that didn’t prevent the band from releasing a couple of great (and generally favorably reviewed) albums, R and Songs for the Deaf, full of noisy riffs, speedy hooks and oddly tuneful, frequently falsetto vocals. With QOTSA existing as something of a loose ensemble on album and live, the main focal point is Josh Homme (joined here by former members of Danzig, A Perfect Circle and Eleven). With Lullabies to Paralyze, he has an opportunity to push his band into the stratosphere of modern rock (as there’s not a lot of competition). While it remains to be seen whether there will be superstar status for the group, Lullabies is a strange bird – not exactly a step backwards, but less exhilarating than either of the band’s two previous albums.
Lullabies to Paralyze starts promising enough, with the pretty Tom Waits-like ballad “This Lullaby,” sung by Mark Lanegan (in, regrettably, his only appearance). This is followed by the breakneck “Medication” – a bit of a reworking, musically and thematically, of R’s “Feel Good Hit of the Summer” – and then by “Everybody Knows That You’re Insane,” a piece of rock shifting between a spooky slide-led intro and a thunderous chorus. However, the momentum diminishes eventually, as the album becomes more interested in blues-boogies (“Burn The Witch”) and Foo Fighters-like radio rock (“In My Head”) than in the kind of distinctively heavy yet catchy songs that populated their previous two albums (“Go With The Flow,” “Autopilot”). And when Lullabies does try to get heavy in the second half, the songs become plodding and the riffs aren’t very remarkable, especially “The Blood Is Love” and “Skin on Skin.”
What manages to make the album compelling, in spite of it failing to live up to the terms set up by previous QOTSA albums, is that Homme takes his songs in many different directions and comes up with some pleasant surprises. Lullabies’ best explorations involves subtle elements of psychedelia, such as the vocals and warbly leads counterpointing the crunchy main riff in “Tangled Up in Plaid”, the playful introduction to “The Blood Is Love” and Zeppelin-esque bluster of “Someone’s In the Wolf.” Lead single “Little Sister” borrows the cowbell pulse of “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” (though transplanted to some sort of woodblock) and marries it to a great fuzz guitar lead. This one song is enough to remind listeners of the great rock songs Homme can write. Also noteworthy is “Broken Box,” which sounds a bit like 13-era Blur with its handclaps, high-pitched backing vocals, hard piano chords and distorted bass.
Homme is rather effective as a vocalist (especially since he wasn’t the singer in Kyuss, his previous band). However, ex-Queen Nick Oliveri’s periodic appearance as designated screamer and all-around crazy person is unexpectantly missed. There are a few guest vocalists, such as Garbage-girl Shirley Manson and Homme-elle Brody Dalle, but they add little. Overall, Lullabies is a bit too long and a bit too slow, but has a respectable core of rocky goodness. |