| August 29, 2002 - Dot Music: Songs for the Deaf Review
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by Simon P. Ward |
Dear Queens of the Stone Age,
I am writing to you in the hope that I might be able to join your band. I've just got your new album, 'Songs For The Deaf', and I see you've got a new drummer, that bloke who used to be in the hairy band - Dave Grohl. Very loud, isn't he? And you've also got that grumpy fellow, Mark Lanegan, singing on some of the tracks. Cool.
I love the fact that the album is meant to be like a radio station. Very cool. And the way the first track, 'You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar But I Feel Like A Millionaire', just fades in then WHAM it hits you in the face like a sonic missile. You're a bit of a nutter, aren't you, Mr Oliveri? It's the way you scream those words.
I know just what you mean on 'No One Knows' when you say "We get these pills to swallow/How they stick in your throat". Great imagery. And I love the riff on 'First It Giveth', like a kind of corkscrew drilling into your brain. And then grumpy bloke Lanegan does that sighing thing on the chorus like he used to do with Screaming Trees.
'The Sky Is Fallin' is a beast, with that deserty "We're all on acid" vibe that I can really relate to and those riffs, man, those riffs. Meaty. And what can I say about 'Hangin' Tree', it's got Mark Lanegan singing on it, it sounds like a great Screaming Trees song and it's got the word 'Tree' in the title. These. Are. All. Good. Things.
Sometimes you sound a bit more unhappy, like on 'Gonna Leave You' - "It's raining in my room" - I dig that. What about those drums on 'Go With The Flow' - man, that guy can play, can't he? I expect that's why you had him in the band. And 'God Is In The Radio' has got just such an awesome riff, like the Lord himself hotwired to a Marshall amp. Amen to that. And Mr Homme, your singing sounds so nonchalant, so nonchalant.
It sounds like you guys have such fun when you're making albums. And you make such great albums. And I love that Spanish DJ, oh yes. So, I was just wondering…could I be your new drummer? I'm thinking of getting a tattoo soon, if it helps.
Yours in rock,
Simon P Ward
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