Snap Judgments: Queens of the Stone Age - Lullabies to Paralyze

Lullabies to Paralyze is the most stylistically all-over-the-place album I've bought in a year, at least. Each song is influenced by some subgenre of modern hard rock in a pretty obvious way. I would say that perhaps the band is a little directionless, perhaps with the loss of Nick Oliveri and their defining themselves as 'trying to get away from Kyuss' for so long, but I think it's more that they are just playing and dabbling and enjoying themselves.

“This Lullaby”

Mood-setting slow, guy with acoustic guitar, walking melody. One of those songs bands put at the beginning of an album to get you too sit down and shut up and listen.

“Medication”

This is fast-paced, open chord, unmuted and upbeat. Very Strokes-esque with a bit of Weezer thrown in. Good bassline. Repetitive but not to the same degree as older QotSA stuff.

“Everybody Knows that You Are Insane"

This is loud and in-your-face Soundgarden-type hard rock with ear-piquing drums and a wall of guitar sound.

“Tangled Up in Plaid”

This is a dead-on Pearl Jam tribute if I ever heard one. Maybe they're trying to seal the rumour I heard that they might be touring with PJ this summer. (pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease) Eddie Vedder would be proud of the inflections in the vocals and the choppy but ear catching guitar line is straight out of Vs.

“Burn the Witch”

This is bluesy in the same way as the White Stripes are bluesy. But it has a lot of interesting harmonizing guitar noodling in the background, and the vocal harmonies sound as if Death himself became a blues singer.

I'm wishing each of the songs would be quite a lot longer, to let you really get into the beat like with their older stuff.

“In My Head”

This one reminds me a lot of guys like the Vines. Not quite grunge, not quite punk, but somewhere in between.

“Little Sister”

This one is really good, a pretty obvious choice for the single as it's got an energetic chorus and it's about a girl so it gives them an excuse for a wonderfully raunchy video with questionable subject matter. The guitar solo is nice and messy but there's method to it. Exactly what you'd expect from the former kings of Stoner Metal pretending to be a grunge band. Works quite well.

This album is going to give me ADD. Or make it worse, not sure which.

“I Never Came”

A nice mix of Superunknown-era Soundgarden and the modern artier rock bands, with a deceptively simple steady drum beat and a mid-range trill guitar line. Vocals are high-pitched but melodic. Not sure I'd want to keep up singing that for very long.

“Someone's in the Wolf”

Finally, a 7:00-long song. This is more like it. This one has a rhythm very similar to the stuff on Mastodon's first album. Love it. But more melodic and clear, not the same muddy sound / production. Works very well. Wish the whole album was like this.

There's a very quiet Led Zeppelin type clean guitar chord progression in the background of the interlude amid rippling water, whispering and understated guitar blips. Then it gets loud and fast again. This is the kind of music I want to hear more of. Come on guys, get to it.

“The Blood is Love”

Very Monster Magnet. Also reminds me of previous QotSA albums. Droning, grinding, steady. Good music to debug code by.

“Skin on Skin”

I'd say it has a Mr. Bungle ring to it, but I'll likely get yelled at for being superficial. But then again, this is 'snap judgments', so suck it. Good song, but kind of sticks out even in this mish mash of an album.

“Broken Box”

Sounds a bit like the Pixies with the alternating quiet and loud sound and vocal weirdness.

“You Got a Killer Scene There, Man"

A bit like if Danzig took on the desert / stoner metal genre. I'm realizing that maybe 3 people I know would be able to follow this rambling semi-review's shorthand.

But since the rest of you have stopped reading it's all the same in the end.

“Long Slow Goodbye”

This one has sort of a Kyuss-swallowing-and-digesting-CCR feel to it. The chord progression is similar to something from Kyuss's Welcome to Sky Valley album.

Finally, a bonus snap judgment from Jussy: "as far as contemporary rock albums go nowadays......josh homme has that shit licked"
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