- Record Label: Interscope
- Release Date: Mar 22, 2005
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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They are so good, so natural on Lullabies to Paralyze that it's easy to forget that they just lost Oliveri, but that just makes Homme's triumph here all the more remarkable.
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Lullabies occasionally evokes early Black Sabbath and nods to a few psych-rock stalwarts but, like most Queens' records, it's oddly unclassifiable. It's also troublingly inconsistent.
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UncutEffectively embracing the entire history of the band's sound, the album sprawls over an hour, and has so many peaks and valleys it's practically topographical. [Apr 2005, p.98]
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Even if the characteristic humor is gone, the album hits more than it misses -- but it's fairly bottom-heavy, leaving much stoner drone in the way of the eventual goods.
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MojoThis is not a Big Rock Record. Instead it's intimate, multi-layered and uplifting. [Apr 2005, p.86]
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Q MagazinePrecise, tough, tuneful, ambitious and sexy as hell. [Apr 2005, p.112]
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New Musical Express (NME)Where 'Songs For The Deaf' was about jumping up and down until your eardrums burst, 'Lullabies To Paralyze' will use its enigmatic mysticism to lull you into a blissful daze so you don't at first notice that the riffs have broken your neck. [12 Mar 2005, p.55]
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It's the tension between Homme's conflicting impulses that pressurizes Lullabies to Paralyze's highest points and accounts for its lows.
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Under The RadarAt times, the songs get bogged down in too much heavy instrumentation, but they are always saved by [Homme's] soothing, drawling vocals. [#9]
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Homme has emerged with the best songs of his career.
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‘Songs For The Deaf’ worked because it had the tunes to handle the drama. It dared you to hate it at first so that it could eventually win you over, which made its triumph all the greater. But with ‘Lullabies To Paralyze’ you’re waiting a long time to be won over, and when it finally happens, it’s far too brief.
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Without other strong personalities in the band to rein him in, Homme's occasional excesses undercuts what makes QOTSA so great.
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SpinAn eclectic, rippin' record whose only shortcoming is its commitment to artistic quality. [Apr 2005, p.99]
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Entertainment WeeklyThe macho posturing can get obnoxious.... That said, anyone looking for a band that can mix and match metal, blues, thrash, punk, psychedelia, and grunge as the mood suits will be floored by Lullabies. [25 Mar 2005, p.70]
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Alternative PressThe Queens have officially given us the first legitimate Album Of The Year candidate for 2005. [May 2005, p.130]
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Lullabies is one of the strongest albums of 2005 thus far, from beginning to end.
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MagnetIt's an overstuffed, uneven album, one that's not disappointing as much as it is disorienting. [#67, p.111]
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Lullabies is ultimately a demanding, schizophrenic, lopsided album. At its best, it's an elaboration on what Queens have become known for -- distinct, droning, melodic, heavy guitar rock. At its worst it's futile, go-nowhere studio sludge.
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BlenderSounds routine, obscure without much mystery. [Apr 2005, p.124]
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FilterTaken on its own, any one of these songs is pretty good--and some are really good--but Lullabies to Paralyze is held prostrate by an overall lack of variety not made up for by kitsch or vigor. [#14, p.94]
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Lullabies to Paralyze loses points for a handful of uninspired tracks and questionable production values, but I can’t imagine anybody who’s enjoyed the Queens in the past not taking to at least half of the songs on this album.
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The 2005 version of QOTSA finds the band more relaxed and loose than it has ever been on record.
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Los Angeles TimesThis is metal that swings, heavy with a deft touch. [24 Apr 2005]
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For the most part, "Lullabies To Paralyze" keeps up the high musical standard set by its predecessors.
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If this is what treading water sounds like, I'll take it.
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What's great about this album is they've managed to wield the same monolithic power riffs but make them count, with melodies and ideas way more consistent than before.
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Lullabies to Paralyze explodes with tight, meaty riffs, enormous pop melodies and vocals that seem to come from outer space.
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They still cuss (in case you for-fucking-got), and they still gab about drinking and screwing and dabbing their noses in the c-c-c-c-c-cocaine, so all's good in that regard.
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Where Songs for the Deaf found the perfect middle ground between aggressive rocking licks and experimental flourishes, Lullabies falls to the experimental side.
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It's the magnetic push and pull of its different sonic layers and shifting moods that really defines the record (for better and worse), and rewards repeated listens.
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Even through patches of mediocrity, QOTSA still offer something healthy and respectable to the hard rock world, but too much of anything can be bad for you.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 179 out of 187
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Mixed: 7 out of 187
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Negative: 1 out of 187
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VladaJAug 15, 2007
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Dec 27, 2018
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Dec 10, 2014