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Songs for the Deaf, the Queens' 2002 stoner metal behemoth, owed much of its success to the Kobe-like multi-talents of Homme- dynamic songwriting, seductive hooks, pulverizing guitar riffs, chilling zombie-choir background vocals and a falsetto that would steal your girlfriend from right in front of you, then slither its tongue in her ear as they walked out the door. The contributions of screeching demon bassist Nick Oliveri and grizzled troubadour-in-residence Mark Lanegan, however, provided welcomed variety. Dave Grohl playing the drums didn't hurt either. He should really play the drums more often. Now Grohl's one-album stand is over and Oliveri's been sacked, replaced by Joey Castillo of Danzig and Alain Johannes, respectively, for Lullabies. With all due respect, I stopped missing the former two during my second listen. It sounds like a cliche to say "this record picks up where the last one left off while nudging the boundaries of the band's sound," but, well, that's exactly what happens. The title itself is taken from a lyric in "Mosquito Song," the acoustic "hidden" track on Songs for the Deaf, which, of course, nudged the boundaries of the Queens' sound and hinted at where their next record might pick up. As "Mosquito" was quite possibly written by the cannibal witch from "Hansel and Gretel," the location hinted at appears to be the Black Forest in the time of the Brothers Grimm. Thus, Lullabies begins with "This Lullaby," a haunting, almost medieval acoustic ballad of lost love (and by my calculations, Lanegan's only lead vocal). Then "Medication" kicks in and we're back to more familiar QotSA territory- throbbing start n' stop punk metal not unlike Songs' opener "You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire." Only this time around, Homme's smooth, distant vocal replaces Oliveri's in-your-ear-splitting scream, and it rawks just as hard. Next, the tempo slows to an eerily calm desert breeze for the first minute of "Everybody Knows That You're Insane" before the band returns pedal to metal (and cleverly appropriates the chorus of the Buzzcocks' "Everybody's Happy Nowadays"). A couple of devilish stompers ("Tangled Up in Plaid," "Burn the Witch"), a couple more solid rawkers ("In My Head," "Little Sister") and the slow burner "I Never Came" round out the record's stellar first half. The second half isn't any less impressive, though it might require a little more patience. "Someone's in the Wolf," with its pagan verse, "Planet Caravan" bridge and vertigo-inducing climax, might be the longest Black Sabbath homage the Queens have ever done. "The Blood is Love," six and a half more minutes of quaaludes and acid, follows; "Skin on Skin" grooves, "Broken Box" shakes, "You Got a Killer Scene There, Man" and "Long Slow Goodbye" drive off into the sunset. And in a final variation on the "Mosquito Song" experiment, the "Hidden Finale" makes me feel like I've just beaten Final Fantasy. That might sound pretentious and proggy, but fortunately, Homme's never been one to take himself too seriously. Past Queens records have featured drugs as lyrics, laughter as vocals, and thinly-veiled satire of FM radio as filler. On Lullabies, a lyric like "I hate to see you leave/But I love to watch you go" serves as flirtatious banter, and "Little Sister" shamelessly flaunts a cowbell. If the liner notes told me Will Ferrell was the guest cowbeller, I would have believed it. Had someone told me two months ago that I would enjoy this record as much as Songs for the Deaf- that would have been harder to fathom. You Dig? You'll Dig... Feel Good Hits - The Queens of
the Stone Age Discography |
