Queens Of The Stone Age — Lullabies To Paralyze

After the brilliant Songs For The Deaf Josh Homme returns with the long anticipated Lullabies To Paralyze. This time without co-songwriter and bassist Nick Oliveri. Actually, long time collaborator Mark Lanegan doesn't do a lot either except for the smooth intro This Lullaby and some background vocals. No worries. Josh can do QOTSA easily on his own. I might say: this could be their best album so far.

Lullabies To Paralyze is a little more experimental. A bit slower and cleaner than QOTSA's previous effort. Still, only a couple of tracks are radio friendly. First single Little Sister is by far the most easiest tune on the album. It's not a new No One Knows, but it is pretty good, especially the nice solo on which the songs ends. The first half of the album doesn't have a weak spot at all. Mark Lanegan on This Lullaby, the amazing short and punky Medicine which almost behaves as an intro for the brilliant Everybody Knows That You're Insane. After that the infectious Tangled Up In Plaid. Burn The Witch, In My Head, Little Sister and 'ballad' I Never Came are some of the best material written by this band.

The second part of the album is a little darker and experimental. Reminding me more of Josh his Desert Sessions. Someone's In The Wolf could be one of my favourite tracks on the album. A seven minutes long 'epic' song. One of the darkest they've written. The Blood Is Love is a litte less enjoyable. Skin On Skin is weird robotic stoner-rock. You either love it or hate it. Broken Box really screams Desert Sessions. Great song. The bluesy You've Got A Killer Scene There, Man has Josh doing low Mark Lanegan vocals. One of myfavourites. Long Slow Goodbye is a fine way to end the album before the odd, but nice, hidden track ends it fully.

Lullabies To Paralyze doesn't compromise. With Nick gone and all the (bad) press Josh got during that period he had to work under a lot of pressure. Songs For The Deaf was a huge success and the people are expeciting at least the same quality. In my opinion Lullabies To Paralyze succeeds and is even better. The album has only a few filler tracks (The Blood Is Love, Skin On Skin) and everything else just screams: best rock album of 2005! If it really is can only be said at the end of the year, but I'm pretty sure Lullabies To Paralyze will end up somewhere on my list.