Lullabies To Paralyze

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Lullabies to Paralyze is the first Queens of the Stone Age album released since the rather messy departure of co-conspirator Nick Oliveri, but this by no means sounds like a Josh Homme solo project. Granted, opening track "Lullaby" is a mellow ballad, but as it's sung by Mark Lanegan, it can hardly count as Homme's flirtation with self-indulgence. And besides, once "Medication" kicks in with the tell-tale chugga-chugga guitars that have marked every previous QOTSA release, it'd be impossible to mistake this album for anyone else. The loss of Oliveri is almost compensated for by the appearance of some top-flight guests: from Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top (on the appropriately bluesy "Burn the Witch" and on the penultimate track) to Garbage's Shirley Manson and The Distillers' Brody Dalle. Best of all, though, is the accelerating riff of "Someone's in the Wolf", which is one of the most air-guitar-worthy songs of recent years. On the whole, Lullabies to Paralyze is never as good as Rated R or Songs for the Deaf, but few modern rock albums are. If the Queens of the Stone Age have one fault, it's that they've set their own standards too high. --Robert Burrow