| Songs for the Deaf | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Queens of the Stone Age | ||||
| Released | August 27, 2002 | |||
| Recorded | March 2002–June 2002 at The Site (San Rafael, California), Conway Recording Studios and Barefoot (Hollywood, California) | |||
| Genre | Alternative metal, hard rock, heavy metal, stoner rock[1] | |||
| Length | 59:19 | |||
| Label | Interscope | |||
| Producer | Josh Homme, Adam Kasper, Eric Valentine | |||
| Queens of the Stone Age chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Alternative cover | ||||
|
Cover of U.S. vinyl release
|
||||
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.[2] 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,[3] whilst earning the band's first gold record certification in the US, having sold 986,000 copies in the country.[4] 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.
Contents |
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.[2] 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".[5] Grohl put Foo Fighters on temporary hiatus,[6][7] delaying their upcoming album One by One to October 22, 2002[8] 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.[9][10]
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,[11] 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.[12] 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."[13]
In September 2002, Josh Homme explained the band's goals with the release of the album:
| “ | I've been thinking of this album since the first album, not necessarily the radio thing, but to me that isn't the full concept, the full concept is the diversity of it all, I think we're supposed to be pushing buttons over the three records. I've always looked at our first three records as a set: the first one was to distance ourselves from Kyuss, the second album fanned out the music into different areas and this one takes that out even a little further, I think.[14] | ” |
In the same month, Nick Oliveri explained the band's aims in an interview with retail company HMV:
| “ | We're still doin' the same thing we always did, which is play music that we wanna hear but we can't buy it in the stores so we have to make it. We're not trying to cater to anybody — I wouldn't know how to do that because I've never sold records, you know what I mean? 'Let's write a single!' I don't know what that is — I've never had one.[15] | ” |
Between them, Homme and Oliveri had different opinions on the usage of fake radio excerpts between tracks on the album, the former believing it gave the album "fluidity". According to Oliveri, they are a jibe at, "how a lot of stations play the same thing over and over. We don't get played on the radio, so I figure we should talk shit about them."[16]
Several songs that appeared on the album were re-worked forms of tracks previously recorded and released in the Desert Sessions, a side project of Josh Homme with various guest collaborators. "You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire" was the opening track of Volume 5: Poetry for the Masses (Sea Shed Shit Head by the She Sore), with vocals originally performed by Mario Lalli instead of Oliveri. "Hangin' Tree" first appeared on Volume 7: Gypsy Marches.[17] Also, both "A Song for the Deaf" and "Go with the Flow" were previously performed as early as 2001 with the former having quite different lyrics and vocals completely by Mark Lanegan.[18]
The album was initially planned for release on August 13, 2002,[19] but was eventually postponed for two weeks.[20]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [21] |
| Pitchfork Media | (7.9/10)[22] |
| NME | [23] |
| Stylus | (B+)[24] |
| Playlouder | [25] |
| Q | 9/02, p.104 |
| The Guardian | [26] |
| Uncut | 9/02, p.104 |
| Rolling Stone | [27] |
Songs for the Deaf was the Queens of the Stone Age's breakout album and granted the band international recognition. Upon its worldwide release in late August 2002, the album would peak at the top twenty on most of the charts it appeared on, reaching the top ten in Australia, Belgium, Norway and the UK, the top twenty Finland, Italy, Sweden and the US (number 17 on the Billboard 200 album chart), as well as the top thirty in Denmark, France and Ireland.
Like its predecessor, Songs for the Deaf received very positive reviews, aggregated as a total score of 89 out of 100 ("universal acclaim") on Metacritic,[3] making the album the third highest rated on the site from 2002.[28] Entertainment Weekly called it "the year's best hard-rock album", giving it an A.[29] Splendid said "the bottom line is that QOTSA turns in another genre-demolishing, hard-as-titanium album in Songs for the Deaf. This is not your father's metal. It's better." Mojo listed the album as the year's third best, while Playlouder and Spin placed it at fourth. NME placed the album as the sixth best, with the three singles each making the magazine's "Tracks of the Year" list over the course of 2002/2003.[30] Kerrang! rated the album at number 1 on its "Best albums of 2002" list.[31]
The album met with great success earning the band's first gold certification in the US on January 27, 2003, shifting over 500,000 copies, as well as platinum certification in the UK on September 20, 2002, with sales exceeding 100,000 of units sold.[32] and platinum status in Canada.[33] As of June 2007 the total amount of sold copies in the US is estimated at 1,186,000 according to Nielsen Soundscan.[4]
The album received two Best Hard Rock Performance Grammy nominations for singles "No One Knows" (2002),[34] and "Go with the Flow" (2003).[35] The song "Millionaire" was used in both trailers and commercials for the Xbox 360, PC and Playstation 3 video game Battlefield: Bad Company 2 in early 2010 and was also used ingame for Tony Hawk Underground. Also "Millionaire" and "A Song for the Dead" both appear as background music for the opening cinematic of Jak X: Combat Racing.
The information regarding accolades attributed to Songs for the Deaf is adapted from AcclaimedMusic.net.[36]
| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dagsavisen | Norway | The 21 Best Albums of the 21st Century[37] | 2005 | 16 |
| VPRO | Netherlands | 299 Nominations of the Best Album of All Time[38] | 2006 |
|
| HARP | United States | 50 Most Essential Albums since 2001"[39] | 2006 | 48 |
| NME | United Kingdom | The 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade[40] | 2009 | 15 |
| Uncut | United Kingdom | Uncut's Albums of the Decade[41] | 2009 | 28 |
| Pitchfork Media | United States | The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s[42] | 2009 | 134 |
| Decibel Magazine | United States | The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of the Decade[43] | 2009 | 7 |
The cover art for the U.S. double LP version of the album is quite different, featuring a red Q (with a sperm cell as the line in the Q and an egg cell as the circle) on a black background with no other text. It was released on red vinyl. The UK vinyl version cover is the same as the CD cover. The dashboard/interior with superimposed logos is that of a Fiat 124 Sport Spider, a 1960s–1980s mass market Italian sports car. The person on the album disc is musician Dave Catching, who performs on the album.[44]
There were also three different album covers that were made for the compact disc version of Songs for the Deaf. All of the interior artwork for each of the three versions is the same, but there were covers printed in red, magenta, and orange. The most common copy of the album sleeve is the red cover.
All tracks by Joshua Homme and Nick Oliveri, except where noted. Lead vocals by Joshua Homme except where noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire" | Homme, Mario Lalli | Nick Oliveri | 3:12 |
| 2. | "No One Knows" | Homme, Mark Lanegan | 4:38 | |
| 3. | "First It Giveth" | 3:18 | ||
| 4. | "A Song for the Dead" | Homme, Lanegan | Mark Lanegan | 5:52 |
| 5. | "The Sky Is Fallin'" | 6:15 | ||
| 6. | "Six Shooter" | Nick Oliveri | 1:19 | |
| 7. | "Hangin' Tree" | Homme, Alain Johannes | Mark Lanegan | 3:06 |
| 8. | "Go with the Flow" | 3:09 | ||
| 9. | "Gonna Leave You" | Nick Oliveri | 2:50 | |
| 10. | "Do It Again" | 4:04 | ||
| 11. | "God Is in the Radio" | Mark Lanegan | 6:04 | |
| 12. | "Another Love Song" | Nick Oliveri | 3:16 | |
| 13. | "A Song for the Deaf" (Contains an incomplete version of "Feel Good Hit of the Summer", that features all of the lyrics replaced with rhythmic laughing, toward the end of the track, after about 30 seconds of silence.) | Homme, Oliveri, Lanegan | 6:42 | |
| 14. | "Mosquito Song" (Mentioned on the track listing, but labeled as a hidden track.) | 5:37 | ||
|
Total length:
|
59:19 | |||
"The Real Song for the Deaf", which is essentially Track 0, is located in the pregap of Track 1 as a hidden track.
The hidden track can be found by rewinding the first track. Starting at 0:00 on track one, rewind the track to roughly -1:30. A voice comes on and says: "Huh? What?" and a pattern of bass kicks in.
This track, as well as being omitted from some pressings of the album (see track listing), is difficult to listen to on all but conventional CD players. Most software CD players do not allow rewinding of this nature, and most MP3 "ripping" software will not include the data.
iTunes has recently included this track as part of the entire album.
The following people contributed to Songs for the Deaf:[44]
The songs on Songs for the Deaf are often interluded by staged bits of radio chatter.
Album
|
Singles
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||