Tuesday, April 18, 2017

#2413 Queens of the Stone Age - Lullabyes to Paralyze

Deadspin writer // Chopped champion Drew Magary recently ranked the QotS albums, but conceded he thought they basically ranged from great to still great. Sure, everyone would say something similar: they'll rank them as great to good, or kinda bad to really bad, or really mediocre to barely mediocre at all (but then, who would listen to all 6 albums by a band they're not even really that hot on? NOT ME>

It's not even that they're _that_ samey. But either you're into huge, hard, sleek riffs or you're not. Either you're into Josh Homme's slinking masculinity or you're not. And whether that's bent glammy or krauty or angular or (in this case) stoner // 90's revival, you've got the chromosome or you don't.

This's (marginally!) less exciting than the rest, but major points for a simmering patience that builds as a 25-minute ramp-up to the epic Someone's in the Wolf. The pacing's killer - it's their most album-album I've heard (yet!) and I gotta concede admiration for the pure, easy force that is those riffs. Even if it doesn't set your heart on fire, the sound is flawless, and it's super easy to plow through the entire catalog and come away with a 5-hour half-smile 3.5/5

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