Queens of the Stone Age: Songs for the Deaf (2002)
When Dave Grohl asks if he can join your band, âpretty please,â you know that band must rank among the coolest, most exciting on the planet, and thatâs precisely the cache Queens of the Stone Age were enjoying around the time of their third studio album, Songs for the Deaf.
Released 20 years ago this month, this was a worthy successor to the groupâs year 2000 sophomore breakthrough, Rated R, mirroring its eclectic, idiosyncratic creativity, while mimicking a radio-soundtracked nighttime drive across the California desert, complete with numerous fictional DJs.
Of course, terrestrial radio rarely, if ever, sounded this good, this twisted, this unpredictable, so all you kids under 25 out there, donât be fooled into false airwave nostalgia, and all of you under 15s living in all-you-can-eat streaming utopia, donât waste time trying to comprehend this archaic technology.
Though I still canât pick my favorite amongst Rated R, Songs for the Deaf, or the bandâs underrated self-titled debut, I think we can all agree this was the ultimate Q.O.T.S.A. line-up, pairing Grohl with vocalist/guitarist Josh Homme, bassist/vocalist Nick Oliveri, and occasional frontman Mark Lanegan. (*)
Certainly, it took a lot of musical chemistry to weld together so many strange sounds with such seamless efficiency and power.
Mind you, some of these songs (âYou Think I Ainât Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire,â âHanginâ Treeâ) had already been recorded for the Homme-led Desert Sessions, but they fit right in with the bold new works composed especially for this not-quite-magnum opus.
Highlights ranged from swinging single âNo One Knows,â to the piano-tinkled âGo with the Flow,â and the relentless âFirst It Giveth,â to the post-stoner rocker âDo it Again â and lysergic grooves of âGod is in the Radio,â to the ominous, absolutely terrifying title track. (**)
Toss in outliers like the Oliveri-penned surf rocker âAnother Love Song,â the grunge raga âThe Sky is Fallinâ,â and the subdued, almost classical âMosquito Songâ (whose lyrics preemptively name the Queensâ next album, Lullabies to Paralyze), and Songs for the Deaf is indeed a âtrip into the heart of darkness.â
But I felt nothing but euphoria when I caught this short-lived supergroup formation of Q.O.T.S.A. at New York Cityâs Bowery Ballroom, back in 2002, and hereâs the best part: the show is now available on YouTube, so get ready to miss this incredible group (plus the recently deceased Lanegan) all over again.
* Backed by several crucial session players, including the multi-talented couple of Alain Johannes (lap steel, e-bow, organ, piano, flamenco guitar, theremin) and Natasha Shneider (e-bow, organ, piano, theremin), formerly of alt-rockers Eleven.
**Â As I wrote in a Loudwire article entitled â get this! â â50 Disturbing Songs that People Love,â its âsinister melodies, Hommeâs ghostly falsetto and vague rhymes skirted the obvious and suggested, thereâs a big difference between not being able to hear and simply not listening.â
More Queens of the Stone Age: Rated R, Lullabies to Paralyze, ⊠Like Clockwork.
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