Tuesday, December 2, 2008

101. Queens of the Stone Age - Lullabies to Paralyze

There's not much I can do with QOTSA albums except review them like normal.It's very hard to write about a band you love so much because all you want to do is gush about the songs and force people to listen to them. There's no big stories to go with these albums either, because they are a constant soundtrack. Not a day goes by when I don't listen to at least one QOTSA album in full.

This album has it all. It's part wicked fairytale, part deluded romanticism. LTP opens with Mark Lanegan and the creepy, yet mesmerizing This Lullaby and careens through a slew of musical styles until it ends with Josh Homme's melancholy voice on Long, Slow Goodbye. In between you have Everybody Knows That You're Insane, a bluesy piece that invokes a smoky barroom. There's the ominous sounding Burn the Witch which features Billy Gibbons playing some killer riffs (and also includes Jack Black hand claps). The pop-perfect In My Head is everything that was awesome about 70s radio hits. There's the wistful, almost mournful I Never Came and the deep and dark Someone's in the Wolf, which makes me think of being lost in the woods in some warped bedtime story. The Blood is Love is all spacey, like something you should listen to with a bong and a black light in someone's basement, as is the groovy You've Got a Killer Scene There Man. The awesome Broken Box is vulgar spitefulness set to a danceable, ass-shaking, hand clapping beat. Then Long, Slow Goodbye, haunting song in which Homme does an amazing job of conveying the sadness within.

I could say this is my favorite QOTSA album, but that would be true for only today. It varies, depending on my mood.

Favorite song: Broken Box (today)
The Fade

3 comments:

Carin said...

Favorite song (today) "Broken Box" which I listen to full blast on the way home.

Love this album. Love all the albums. Gush. Josh Homme! OMYGODILOVEHIM (falls over faint ...)

Foss said...

Whenever I hear any of their songs on the radio I turn it right up, yet I *still* don't own any of their albums. I should rectify that.

Anonymous said...

I take back what I said a few weeks back about Songs for the Deaf being my favorite Queens album. Because this one is tops.