Songs for the Deaf

Contributors

Songs for the Deaf was the first 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 in support of the album. Grohl's first performance with the band occurred at March 7, 2002 at The Troubadour, Los Angeles, and his last performance was at the Fuji Rock Festival on July 28, 2002. He returned to Foo Fighters soon after, with Danzig drummer Joey Castillo 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 core member, bassist/vocalist Nick Oliveri, who was fired following the albums touring cycle. The album also included the first musical contribution to a Queens of the Stone Age album by multi-instrumentalists Natasha Shneider and Alain Johannes. Shneider and Johannes, alongside Songs for the Deaf touring recruits Castillo and Troy Van Leeuwen of Failure and A Perfect Circle 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 Oliveri. Valentine was 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." Valentine did sessions with the band during the initial recording period in October and November 2001, but were unhappy with his work and later re-recorded the album with Chris Goss assisting in spring 2002.

Rounding out the core recording lineup of Homme, Oliveri, and Grohl, was singer/songwriter Mark Lanegan, formerly of Screaming Trees, a band that Homme had toured with previously. Lanegan joined the band as a full-time member in 2001 after having guested on the band's previous album, Rated R, and provided additional songwriting and lyrics to the group, in addition to lead vocals on several songs.

Release and marketing

In September 2002, Josh Homme explained the band's goals with the release of the album:

In the same month, Nick Oliveri explained the band's aims in an interview with retail company HMV:

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."

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. Also, both "A Song for the Deaf" and "Go with the Flow" were previously performed as early as 2001 with the former having very different lyrics and vocals completely by Mark Lanegan. The main riff for "No One Knows" comes from another Desert Sessions track, "Cold Sore Superstars".

The album was initially planned for release on August 13, 2002, but was eventually postponed for two weeks.

Artwork

The cover art for the U.S. double LP version of the album is different from the CD version, 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.

Both the CD and LP cover have a Parental Advisory seal on most copies, due to the word "fuck" appearing in the title track "A Song for the Deaf" and "Six Shooter", as well as for the violent lyrics of the latter track.

There were also three different album covers that were made for the CD 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.

Reception

Songs for the Deaf was Queens of the Stone Age's breakout album and garnered 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.

Songs for the Deaf received critical acclaim and is often cited as one of the band's greatest albums to date. On Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 from aggregated critic reviews, Songs for the Deaf is assigned a score of 89, indicating "universal acclaim", making the album the third highest-rated on the site from 2002. Josh Tyrangiel of Entertainment Weekly called it "the year's best hard-rock album", giving it an A. 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. Kludge ranked it at number six on their list of best albums of 2002. 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. Kerrang! rated the album at number 1 on its "Best albums of 2002" list. Music critic Steven Hyden called the album the greatest hard-rock record of the 21st century.

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. and platinum status in Canada. As of June 2007 the total amount of sold copies in the US is estimated at 1,186,000 according to Nielsen Soundscan.

The album received two Best Hard Rock Performance Grammy nominations for singles "No One Knows" (2002), and "Go with the Flow" (2003).

To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of its "Hottest 100" poll, Australian radio station Triple J ran a "Hottest 100 of the last 20 years" poll in June 2013. Songs that were released between 1994 and 2013 were eligible for the poll and "No One Knows" was voted into eleventh position.

Accolades

The information regarding accolades attributed to Songs for the Deaf is adapted from Acclaimed Music.

Track listing

All tracks written by Joshua Homme and Nick Oliveri, except where noted. Lead vocals by Joshua Homme except where noted.

The Real Song for the Deaf

"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 to roughly -1:33. A voice comes on and says: "Huh? What?" and a pattern of low-frequency bass plays and modulates for the rest of the song.

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.

The track was not hidden on the album's cassette tape release, playing before "You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire".

On most digital distribution platforms, this track is included as part of the entire album. In the US, Spotify and the iTunes Store include it as a separate track. On the UK iTunes Store, it is included as part of "You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire".

Personnel

The following people contributed to Songs for the Deaf: