Queens Of The Stone Age - 'Lullabies To Paralyze' (Interscope) Released 21/03/2005

Minus serial nudist and core member Nick Oliveri, Queens of the Stone Age return with this their fourth album. And what an almighty return it is! Although ‘Lullabies To Paralyze’ may narrowly fail to reach the same dizzy zeniths of their 2000 masterpiece ‘Rated R’, it isn’t too far off. A concept album of sorts, the fourteen breathtaking tracks touch upon the darker side of the human psyche and are imbued with a somewhat perverted fairy-tale mysticism.

As previously confirmed with ‘Rated R’ and ‘Songs For The Deaf’, QOTSA’s irrefutable strength is their startling diversity. Effortlessly shifting between numinous ballads, ear-bleeding intense riffs and tuneful opuses, naturally ‘Lullabies To Paralyze’ has great multiplicity. Opener ‘This Lullaby’, for example, features the down right eerie and cavernous vocal talents of long-time collaborator Mark Lanegan on a stunningly plaintive lullaby. By ‘Medication’, the chugging and relentless bass line swiftly adjusts proceedings. But it would be wholly wrong to suggest the album is a mere mishmash of ideas – conversely there is great cohesiveness and electrifying magnetism between the respective tracks. Indeed, it’s a work that has to and deserves to be listened to in its entirety to fully absorb its profound impact.    

Soon after the already thrilling opening, the brilliantly titled ‘Everybody Knows That You Are Insane’ with its soaring guitars, drug-hazed mysticism and frantic finale raises the bar. Elsewhere, ‘Tangled Up In Plaid’ and ‘In My Head’ in particular, are perhaps two of the sexiest and cool-as-**** rock gems you’re likely to have heard this side of the millennium. Then, before you’ve managed to regain any composure, the whore of a tune and worthy single that is ‘Little Sister’ rhythmically assaults the senses.  The ensuing ‘I Never Came’ with its chilled and tuneful tone is genuinely moving and aptly demonstrates what a ****ing brilliant vocal talent Joshua Homme really is.

Of course, ‘I Never Came’ acts as the proverbial calm before the storm, because the four tracks that follow make for the most uncompromising and brutal segment of the album. And the eight-minute rock behemoth that is ‘Someone’s In The Wolf’ is the perfect catalyst. Exhilarating throughout, Homme’s incoherent and distorted vocals add to the claustrophobic intensity created by the filthy bass and squealing guitars. Abruptly closing to be replaced by the chilling guitar plucking of ‘The Blood Is love’, in keeping with the following ‘Skin on Skin’ and ‘Broken Box’, the track evolves into a rock brute and maintains the paranoid, dark vibe. The closing nonchalantly cool ‘“You Got A Killer Scene There Man”’ (featuring barely audible backing vocals from Shirley Manson), and the aptly named ‘Long Slow Goodbye’ with its acoustic driven melancholy, soulful vocals and orchestral finale, provide a fittingly serene ending to a brilliant album.     

While many current British rock bands conjure up images of an annoying yapping terrier barking up the same well-worn tree, it seems that our friends from over the pond are boldly pushing rock boundaries forward. As ‘Lullabies to Paralyze’ confirms, together with fellow rock visionaries The Mars Volta and Death From Above1979, Queens Of The Stone Age deserve your adulation.