Queens Of The Stone Age Songs For The Deaf CD

Features guest appearances from Dave Grohl, Gene Ween, Case Chaos from Amen and more.

Queens Of The Stone Age: Josh Homme, Nick Oliveri, Dave Grohl, Mark Lanegan.
Additional personnel includes: Dean Ween (guitar).
Producers: Josh Homme, Eric Valentine, Adam Kasper.
Recorded at The Site, San Rafael, California and Barefoot Studios, Hollywood, California.
"Go With The Flow" was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. "No One Knows" was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance.
Chinese version contains a Pal format DVD, "Real Number 1", which features live footage recorded at the L.A. Troubadour with singer Mark Lanegan and drummer Dave Grohl. SONGS FOR THE DEAF includes the bonus tracks "The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret" (Live), "Everybody's Gonna Be Happy", and "Mosquito Song" (Hidden).
Chinese version contains the additional track "Everybody's Gonna Be Happy", as well as a bonus CD-ROM that features a video for "No One Knows" and visual footage of the video production process.
Includes a bonus DVD disc.
DJs: Chris Goss; C-; Twiggy Ramirez; Blag Dahlia; Dave Catching; Casey Chaos.
Audio Mixers: Adam Kasper; Nick Raskulinecz.
Recording information: Conway Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA; Sound City Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA.
Photographer: Nigel Copp.
Unknown Contributor Roles: Dave Grohl; Mark Lanegan; Nick Oliveri.
Certain people would have you believe that Queens of the Stone Age's third album, Songs for the Deaf, is the return of real rock -- a bonecrushing work of boundless imagination, the cornerstone in a new era of great rock, much like Nevermind was a decade beforehand. These people, coincidentally, happen to be in the same group that criticizes the Strokes and the White Stripes, claiming that those two bands are nothing but hype, while shamelessly indulging in breathless hyperbole whenever they speak a single word about QOTSA. Anybody who heard Songs prior to its release claimed it was the greatest rock album in years, at least the greatest since Rated R, setting up expectations impossibly high for this very good album. To begin with, this ain't accessible -- not because the music is out-there or unfamiliar (lots of Cream filtered through garage rock, prog-metal, album rock, and punk does not make one a Borbetomagus, nor does it make it "imaginative," either), but because it is so insular, so concerned with pleasing themselves with what they play that they don't give a damn for the audience. This extends to the production, which sounds like a stoned joke gone awry as it compresses and flattens every instrument as if it were coming out of a cheap AM car radio. Sure, that might be the point -- the album begins with radio chatter, and there are lots of jokey asides by a fake DJ -- but Deaf winds up being entirely too evenhanded and samey, since every guitar has the same beefy, mid-range, no-treble tone and Dave Grohl (aka the Most Powerful Drummer in the Universe) is pushed to the background, never sounding loud, never giving this music the muscle it needs. As such, it becomes tiring to listen to -- too much at the same frequency, all hitting the ear in a way that doesn't result in blissful submission, just numbness undercut with a desire to have some texture in this album. Once you get around this -- which is an effort; unlike, say, the Strokes' Is This It?, whose thin production worked aesthetically and enhanced the songs, this sound cuts QOTSA off at the knees -- there indeed is plenty to enjoy here since the band is very good. They're exceptional players, especially augmented here by Grohl on drums, Mark Lanegan on vocals, and Dean Ween on guitar, plus they're very good songwriters, whether they're writing technically intricate riff-rockers or throwbacks to Nuggets. All of this is sorely missing from most guitar rock these days, whether it's indie rock or insipid alt-metal, so it's little wonder that so many fans of grRolling Stone (12/26/02, p.108) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2002"
Rolling Stone (9/5/02, p.70) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...This is prog grunge for the unpretentious....Whether the ace metal is speedy or onerous, it is always deployed in the service of the eccentric song structures, and every track becomes a splendid, mysterious thing."
Spin (1/03, p.70) - Ranked #8 on Spin's list of 2002's "Albums of the Year" - "...A feast for metal lifers who [can] no longer stomach Korn."
Q (12/02, p.67) - Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 2002"
Q (9/02, p.104) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...This album mixes melancholy and might to a rare degree..."
Uncut (1/03, p.95) - Ranked #31 in Uncut's "100 Best Albums of the Year"
Uncut (9/02, p.104) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...(a) breathtaking, virtually flawless album."
CMJ (12/30/02, p.11) - Ranked #10 on CMJ's "Top 10 of 2002"
CMJ (9/2/02) - p.6) - "Queens of the Stone Age get better with age....QOTSA's music is a comfort zone, thanks to its readiness to rock all night and party every day..."
Kerrang (Magazine) (p.52) - "SFTD was a vision of dark-hued rock brilliance louder than a bomb."
Mojo (Publisher) (1/03, p.73) - Ranked #3 in Mojo's "Best Albums of 2002"
Mojo (Publisher) (9/02, p.95) - "All the elements which made its predecessor so great are here, but in excelsis...the thrill of these ensemble performances is downright scary."
NME (Magazine) (8/17/02, p.32) - 9 out of 10 - "...All of what you might want from them and their music is here. There are great titles, displays of extraordinary rock'n'roll and great disturbing pop..."