What links Kyuss, The Desert Sessions, The Eagles Of Death Metal and Queens Of The Stone Age?? The answer is of course Josh Homme, this is the first QOTSA album that has been recorded without long time collaborator Nick Oliveri, who has been with Homme (on and off) since the formation of Kyuss back in 1990 but was unceremoniously sacked by his long time friend prior to the making of this album.

Anybody who wondered whether this would have a detrimental effect on this album needn't have worried as this set of music is as strong as any the band have recorded under the QOTSA monicker. Not all that surprising when you see the list, in the line up box to the right, of additional musicians brought in to flesh out this album (and also when you consider that Homme has recently stated in interviews that 90% of the QOTSA music comes from him anyway).

After a gentle introduction sung by Mark Lanegan with Homme backing him on solo guitar we get straight into "Medication" with its driving bass and fuzzed up guitars rocking as only QOTSA can, then we have a psychedelic intro to "Everybody Knows That You Are Insane" which after a slow first verse quickly gives way to a rollicking chorus and then uses an interesting panned riff to drive through the remaining verses.

There are future classics in abundance here with the first single "Little Sister" deserving special mention as surely THE rock single of the year so far and providing a benchmark that few bands will have the prowess to surpass, it's right up there with "The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret" and "No-one Knows" as one of the best things the band have recorded to date.

In the interest of balance in the review its fair to point out that not all of the tracks enjoy the same songwriting quality, there are times on the album that the musical ideas are not fully formed enough such as "Skin On Skin" for example which is all strange vocals from Homme and a collection of dissonant, unrelated riffs but this is rare and I can say without reservation that this is my album of the year so far.

Let us know your views on 'Lullabies To Paralyze'

Track List

This Lullaby
Medication
Everybody Knows That You Are Insane
Tangled Up In Plaid
Burn The Witch
In My Head
Little Sister
I Never Came
Someone's In The Wolf
The Blood Is Love
Skin On Skin
Broken Box
"You've Got A Killer Scene There Man.."
Long Slow Goodbye
Like A Drug
Precious And Grace

Line Up

Joshua Homme - Vocals,Guitar,Bass
Joey Castillo - Drums,Piano
Troy Van Leeuwen -Guitar,Bass,Vocals
Alain Johannes - Guitar,Bass
Billy Gibbons - Guitar,Vocals
Dave Catching - Guitar
MarK Lanegan - Vocals
Chris Goss - Vocals
Brody Dalle - Vocals
Shirley Manson - Vocals