Queens Of The Stone Age Songs For The Deaf Full Album
Ellyn Krucke
Self-proclaimed prehistoric royalty Queens of the Stone Age are back from the desert wastes of California, and they're putting the 'rock' back in 'blowing shit up' (in a healthy, non-terrorist kind of way). Now, it's no secret that, when it comes to rock's metal edge, these Queens want badly to be kings; you need look no further for proof than 2000's blistering, thuggish Rated R, on which frontman Josh Homme's searing guitars and theatrical vocals brought the band close enough to their goal to sniff the fleurs de lis. That, however, is history, and with Songs for the Deaf, the Queens have hit a new peak in their development: the sound is more massive, the chaos is more calculated, and with hired gun Dave Grohl at the kit, the band has an unprecedented drive that leaves them poised for their strongest bid for power yet.
"You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire" embodies the greatest strengths of rock at its hardest-- stunning riffs, breakneck speed, and guitars that churn and spit like a threshing machine. It's riddled with decades-old metal cliches, but the Queens know what their audience expects, and they use this knowledge to continually twist rock stereotypes into a vicious full-nelson until they beg for mercy. It's fantastic, and this is just the first track.
"No One Knows" changes Songs for the Deaf's pace by sliding into an easy groove, sleazing its way across a dimly-lit bar, half-drunk and reeking of cheap cologne, to put the moves on your girlfriend (or, you know, you, depending). This is four-to-the-floor slime of the highest quality, folks, and it's the second installment in this album's triad of genius, completed subsequently by the next track, "First It Giveth". "Giveth" brings the drama like a champ, with Homme singing in pained falsetto over punishing riffs during the verses, and opening up into aggro-overdrive for the appropriately apocalyptic chorus.
But along the path to greatness, there are pitfalls, and one Homme often falls into here is the old "chamber of lost souls" effect (made popular by Alice in Chains on some of their later albums), which he uses to fill out the backgrounds of some of these songs. The multitracked Hommes aaah'ing melodramatically in undead unison make slogging through "Hanging Tree" and "Go with the Flow" a pretty grim endeavor. It doesn't help that these songs churn along interminably long after their riffs have run dry, either. And worse still, the band has quit winking at their metal excesses entirely, toeing the line between mindless fun and xFC-metal gothery. Fortunately, this is only a temporary decline, but that these two tracks hit back-to-back in the dead center of the record makes for a much steeper dropoff than if they'd been sequenced farther apart.
There's also the issue of the between-song skits. As skits go, these are pretty tame, but that doesn't make them any less obtrusive. The album even opens with one: the sign-on of KLON (that's "clone") radio, "the station that sounds more like everybody else than anybody else." It's a broad parody of the Clear Channel wavelength empire, and while admittedly pretty fucking funny, the target is a bit obvious-- especially given that PS2's "Grand Theft Auto III" beat them to the punch two years ago and pulled it off expertly. My biggest problem with these interruptions, though, is that they do little for the aggregate effect of the album-- after a couple playthroughs, they only serve to stifle the momentum QOTSA manage to develop.
Yet, this same biting cleverness also pervades many of the songs, lending an air of spontaneity and plain good times-- there's a fake stop in one of the early tracks that's so ludicrous I laughed out loud. And there are even better moments to be had elsewhere: the wavering surf guitar on "Another Love Song", or the good old-fashioned brain-sickness of "Six Shooter" and "Mosquito Song," the latter played lovingly by what sounds like the orchestra of the damned.
When these guys are on, it truly is the wrath of the righteous. However, Songs for the Deaf vacillates constantly between soaring heights and mind-numbing lows, making for a true hit-or-miss affair. But even if they can't have it all, the guys do offer as real a showcase of metal-tinged panache and stellar songwriting as anyone might hope for from a band labeled 'stoner-rock.' Besides, if the entire album was as strong as the first three tracks, it'd probably burn you alive. As it stands, Queens of the Stone Age settle for attempted murder. And that ain't bad at all.
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Songs for the Deaf is the 3rd studio album from Queens of the Stone Age, released on August 27, 2002. The album marks the transition from a looser sound in its predecessor, Rated R , and into a heavier, riff-driven rock. It is known for the singles Go With the Flow and No One Knows, two of the best-known songs from the band, and also from the feature of Dave Grohl on drums.
The album has the concept of a drive from Los Angeles to Palm Desert, California, listened through the radio stations on the car. You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire begins with the sound of the car being started and the radio stations, shuffled, until it stops at the KLON fictional station, which announces the song. Throughout the album, there is radio stations shuffling between songs that conduct one into another, up until A Song For The Deaf. After that, the "hidden tracks" don't present any radio sound at all.
Deaf is most known for featuring Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl on drums, but, although everyone believes he wrote the drum tracks, they were originally worked by the previous drummer, Gene Trautmann. After Trautmann left the band, Josh Homme called Grohl (since Queens had opened for Foo Fighters on the Rated R era) inviting him to play the drum tracks for the new album. Grohl then put Foo Fighters into hiatus, playing drums for the album and playing on the promotional tour for Deaf. The first gig from the short tour with Grohl was in the Troubadour, in Los Angeles, on March 7, 2002; and the last one was on July 28, 2002, on the Fuji Rock Festival. Shortly after, Grohl returned to Foo Fighters, releasing the album One By One on October 22, 2002. After Grohl's exit, ex-Danzig drummer Joey Castillo entered the band for touring, turning into official drummer up to the recording process of Queens' 6th studio album, ...Like Clockwork.
Songs for the Deaf marks the last appearance in studio albums from Brendon McNichol, Gene Trautmann and Nick Oliveri, and the first appearances from Natasha Schneider and Alain Johannes. On the touring lineup, it was debut for Joey Castillo and Troy Van Leeuwen, which later became two of the most important musicians in Queens history. It also marked the last Queens tour for Nick Oliveri.
The Real Song for the Deaf is a ghost track from the album: hitting play on Millionaire and then rewind on the CD version takes to an 1:33 minute-long hidden track. The "song" begins with a man saying "Huh? What?" and then takes us to a bassline which goes to the end of the song. The bassline was recorded in such a deep, low tone it is possible that deaf people might actually percieve the vibrations in it, "hearing" the song (hence the name, The Real Song for the Deaf).
After A Song for the Deaf ends, there is an approximately 30 second-long break, and then a "hidden track", that is the recording of a bit of Feel Good Hit of the Summer, but with the lyrics exchanged for laughter.
Songs for the Deaf is the third studio album by Queens of the Stone Age. Released in 2002, it exhibits an extensive Genre Roulette and sees the band straddling their original stoner rock sound with more aggressive Hard Rock influences.
This was largely due to the fact that Dave Grohl contributed drum work on the album and even toured with the band, inspiring frontman Josh Homme to use a heavier sound during the production process. The result is a mix of psychedelic, garage, and doom rock which garnered widespread success.
The album is also noted for its fake radio show excerpts between songs, which make fun of pretentious radio station hosts and the shallowness of mainstream music. These excerpts also contribute to a loose overarching concept for the album, since they collectively take the listener on a drive from Los Angeles to the desert (specifically Joshua Tree). Josh Homme claims that this was added to keep fluidity between the tracks, but his inclusion of stupid radio deejays throughout the album seems to speak to the disdain he had toward going mainstream and selling out early in his career. In any case, this has become Hilarious in Hindsight since the singles "No One Knows", "Go with the Flow", and "First It Giveth" did become hits.
Tropes for the Deaf:
- Abstract Apotheosis: Inverted in "God Is In The Radio". In the song, heavenly or pure music, when transferred to the radio, is said to become mere conventional music palatable to the masses.
- Album Title Drop: The dumbass deejays do it twice, even though neither of them fully grasp the meaning behind it. The first one just calls it a "saga" and laughs about the irony, while the second one believes that it is so deep that she is smarter and more intellectual than anyone else who listens to the album.
- Bilingual Bonus: The end of "No One Knows" features a Latino deejay introducing the next song in Spanish.
- Break Up Song: "Gonna Leave You". "Another Love Song" could be interpreted as a post-breakup song.
- Call-Back: The end of "Song for the Deaf" samples an outtake for the song "Feel Good Hit of the Summer", which was the opening track of their previous album, Rated R.
- Careful with That Axe: Nick Oliveri's screeching in "Six Shooter".
- Cluster F-Bomb: "Six Shooter"; to boot, the lyrics are all fully screamed by Nick Oliveri. Fuck this road!Well, fuck you, too!I'll fucking kill your best friend!What you fucking going to do?!
- Concept Album: Mainly a thinly-veiled critique on how stupid, shallow, and pretentious mainstream radio hosts are. It also subtly mentions the band's desert rock roots, since the car in the album appears to travel from Los Angeles into the desert.
- Continuity Nod: "Mosquito Song" mentions the lyric "Lullabies to paralyze", which is the name of the next Queens of the Stone Age album. It is unlikely that this was intended from the beginning; rather, Josh probably decided to just keep the name since he liked that lyric so much.
- Drugs Are Bad: "First It Giveth": I'm in you, you're in me, I can't tellYou're so cruel, more than me, it is true, that's rightLoyal to only you, up your sleeve
- Dumbass DJ: On numerous tracks, such as the Spanish-speaking one at the end of "No One Knows", the one in the beginning of "Millionaire", the evangelical one at the beginning of "God Is in the Radio", and the creepy woman at the end of "Another Love Song"/the beginning of "Song for the Deaf". These seem to parody the fact that rock is treated as a higher art form these days.
- Epic Rocking: "A Song for the Dead", "Sky is Falling", and "God Is in the Radio" are all about six minutes in length. "Song for the Deaf" is about four minutes long before the silence, the laughing, and the Hidden Track.
- Fading into the Next Song: The album is strung together by radio deejays.
- Fake-Out Fade-Out: "Millionaire" stops with around 35 seconds left in the actual song. After a few seconds of silence, it starts again.
- Fake Radio Show Album: The basic premise (and appeal) for the album. The title itself, Songs for the Deaf, even mocks mainstream radio for playing music that is palatable to an audience who doesn't know what real music is (and is, therefore, "deaf").
- Functional Addict: While "First It Giveth" and "No One Knows" don't glorify drugs, they certainly don't treat them very negatively, either.
- Grande Dame: The woman who announces "Song for the Deaf" is incredibly snobbish and pretentious, and patronizes the listener as though she is introducing a higher art form.
- Gratuitous Spanish: The Spanish-speaking DJ at the end of "No One Knows" who introduces "First It Giveth".
- Human Head on the Wall: At the end of the Music Video of "No One Knows", a vengeful deer has mounted the band members' heads above his bed after they hit him with their car.
- Intercourse with You: "Do It Again" is this from the perspective of a Stalker with a Crush.
- In the Style of: "Six Shooter" and "Millionaire" are done in the style of heavy metal to mock harder genres for their stupid lyrics.
- Loudness War: Done intentionally. The album has a rather bass-heavy mix and loud, low-fi gain, which does make it sound as though it is being played on a car stereo.
- Minimalistic Cover Art: A trident on the red cover. The US vinyl version featured a red Q with a sperm cell, though for obvious reasons, this was not widely released.
- New Sound Album: Songs for the Deaf was Queens of the Stone Age's first commercially successful album thanks to the Genre Roulette and the singles. Josh Homme even laughed at the idea that he would have to write a "single" in order to get the band more visibility, but did so nevertheless.
- The Plague: "Mosquito Song", the hidden track, seems to refer to this: Somehow they pick and pluckTenderize bone to dustThe sweetest grease, finest meat you'll ever tasteTaste, tasteSo you scream, whine, and yellSupple sounds of dinner bellsWe all will feed the worms and trees
- Precision F-Strike: "Song for the Dead" has one toward the end: In a hearse rolling overJust a track in the lineFuck it
- Quieter Than Silence: Somewhat overlaps with Bookends; the intro is ambient and eerie, and the end of "Song for the Deaf" fades out to a somber but peaceful sense of quietude.
- The Something Song: "Song for the Deaf", "Mosquito Song", and "A Song for the Dead". "The Real Song for the Deaf" could count, if it is truly a track.
- Soprano and Gravel: Josh and Mark, respectively, on "Song for the Deaf". This is especially surprising since Josh has a noted deep voice for the genre, and yet Mark's aggressive sound made the lead singer sound melodious.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: Used for artistic effect; as another layer of detail to the album's radio aesthetic, it opts to loudly bleep an entire song when a curse word comes up as opposed to quietly taking it out of the vocal track.
- Step Up to the Microphone: Taken to Vocal Tag Team levels. To wit:
- Nick Oliveri screams "Millionaire" and "Six Shooter", and sings "Gonna Leave You" and "Another Love Song".
- Mark Lanegan (who did not play an instrument for the album) contributes vocals for various tracks, and sings lead on "A Song for the Dead", "Hangin' Tree", and "God Is in the Radio".
- Averted by Dave Grohl. Despite the fact that he is the lead singer of Foo Fighters, he wanted to take a break from singing and instead contribute pure drum work for the album. He even considered quitting the Foo Fighters for a while.
- Stop and Go:
- "Millionaire" famously stops dead in its tracks for a few seconds towards the end, with a loud "UH!" from Oliveri kicking it back into full-throttle.
- "Song for the Dead", which stops in between before picking back up again.