Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf (2002) (1 Viewer)

Title: Songs for the Deaf
Artist: Queens of the Stone Age
Genre: Alternative Rock
Released: 2002

Tracks:
1 - The Real Song for the Deaf
2 - You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, but I Feel Like a Millionaire - 3:12
3 - No One Knows - 4:39 -
4 - First It Giveth - 3:18 -
5 - A Song for the Dead - 5:52
6 - The Sky Is Fallin' - 6:16
7 - Six Shooter - 1:19
8 - Hangin' Tree - 3:06
9 - Go With the Flow - 3:07 -
10 - Gonna Leave You - 2:50
11 - Do It Again - 4:05
12 - God Is in the Radio - 6:05
13 - Another Love Song - 3:16
14 - A Song for the Deaf / Feel Good Hit of the Summer (reprise) - 6:42
15 - Mosquito Song - 5:39
16 - Everybody's Gonna Be Happy - 2:36

Overview:
Songs for the Deaf is the third studio album by American rock band Queens of the Stone Age. Released on August 27, 2002, the album features Foo Fighters and former Nirvana member Dave Grohl as a guest drummer. Like their other albums, Songs for the Deaf has a large number of guest musicians, a signature of the band's releases. Following the breakthrough Rated R, this album is widely regarded as Queens of the Stone Age's best work, garnering near-universal acclaim from critics, whilst earning the band's first gold record certification in the US, having sold 986,000 copies in the country. Today, it is generally considered to be one of the greatest rock albums of the 2000's. Songs for the Deaf is loosely considered as a concept album, taking the listener on a drive from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree while tuning into radio stations from towns on the way such as Banning and the "Bible Belt" on "God Is In The Radio" and Chino Hills, California.

Songs for the Deaf was the first and only Queens of the Stone Age album that featured Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters on drums, who also toured with the band. He replaced the previous drummer, Gene Trautmann, who started working on other projects. Grohl had been a keen admirer of Queens of the Stone Age since the band opened for Foo Fighters on tour and originally wanted to appear on Rated R. He joined Queens of the Stone Age in October 2001 when he received a phone call from Josh Homme, with whom he had been friends since 1992 while Homme was the guitarist for Kyuss. Grohl admitted that he had not drummed for a long time and added that fronting a band was "tiring". Grohl put Foo Fighters on temporary hiatus, delaying their upcoming album One by One to October 22, 2002 because of touring duties with Queens of the Stone Age in support of the album. Grohl's first performance with the band occurred at March 7, 2002 in The Troubadour, Los Angeles, and his last performance was at the Fuji Rock Festival on July 28, 2002. He returned to the Foo Fighters soon after, initially being replaced in Queens of the Stone Age by Kelli Scott of Blinker the Star before Danzig drummer Joey Castillo was eventually announced as his long-term replacement in August 2002.

Songs for the Deaf marks the last appearances on a Queens of the Stone Age record of former members Brendon McNichol (lap steel), Gene Trautmann (drums) and Nick Oliveri (bass). The album also included the first musical contribution to a Queens of the Stone Age album by multi-instrumentalists Natasha Shneider and Alain Johannes. Jeordie White (of Marilyn Manson fame) reportedly auditioned for the band in 2002 but lost out to Troy Van Leeuwen, who joined the band as a touring member in support of Songs for the Deaf. White did appear on the album, however, making a brief cameo appearance as a radio DJ. Shneider, Johannes, and Van Leeuwen would subsequently become full time Queens of the Stone Age members and contribute to the follow-up album Lullabies to Paralyze, released in 2005.

Another change in personnel came with the arrival of producer Eric Valentine, who had previously worked on a pair of Dwarves albums with Nick Oliveri. Valentine was actually a requirement by Interscope and did not do his job according to Homme, who commented that "[Valentine] just recorded it actually, it says production, he was only there to record the beginning of it."
A few songs from this also were previously recorded by the desert sessions and possibly another band the bassist was in, which qotsa have done a fair bit. I prefer desert sessions hanging tree tbh.
The Desert Sessions albums are really great, I only have the later ones and keep meaning to go back to the early ones.
 
i will give this a chance at some point

parents are visiting so no opportunities to listen to music that isn't classical or christmas-themed
 
Hmm, hmmm, right yeah. I've only listened to this once and it's more or less what I expected. I'd grown up listening to Britrock - the Wildhearts and 3 Colours Red and so on and, God I dunno, Foo Fighters. By the time this came out I was just starting college and was fairly done with most rock, I was listening to a lot of post-hardcore Dischord stuff at the time... and the Strokes. No One Knows was a big hit at the time though, I danced many a drunken night to it. I also seem to remember that learning Mosquito Song was a badge of honour for a lot of lads as well.

Listening now it's all pretty decent, kind of standard Soundgarden/FNM/ 90's alternative rock minus all the quirky bits that give those bands a bit of personality. I don't really get what makes it better than anyone else bar people generally prefer their Hard Rock to be from America.

In all honesty it comes across a bit straight and square to me - no weird clothes or musical ideas, just traditional hard rock. You know the P-Funk idea of Sir Nose - the guy who impresses everyone because he looks and dresses cool but is actually the enemy because he can't let loose and dance? This risks being the rock version of that for me.

Taken individually all the tracks are good but I suppose overall i'd give it 7/10 maybe?
 
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First heard this when on tour in the US in 2002, bought it for something ridiculously cheap in a ginormous wallmart and lobbed it in the van stereo. So pretty much heard it in what I think is it's intended environment, driving around arid US states with the window down and the radio blasting. Even if it was bad, it would have a fond place in my heart for that memory, but it's not bad, it's a smasher. Love love love it.
 

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