After 2002's Songs For The Deaf, Queens Of The Stone Age found the breakout success that had eluded its two preceding records. Having an undeniable rock superstar—Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl—behind the drum kit helped, but it seemed like the band had really honed its riff-heavy hard rock. Songs For The Deaf became a platinum-seller and pushed primary songwriter Josh Homme into the national spotlight. So it seems odd, given Deaf's unprecedented success, that Homme would make drastic changes behind the scenes. Notably, he fired longtime collaborator and bassist Nick Olivieri, with whom he'd played since the two were in Kyuss in the early '90s. Instead of replacing him outright, Homme and contributors Troy Van Leeuwen and Alain Johannes traded bass duties, with Joey Castillo on drums.
In fact, Lullabies' elaborate credits show a small army of contributing musicians (including Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top), and unsurprisingly, bass and drums are less pronounced on Lullabies. More than ever, QOTSA is a band devoted to the riff. Lullabies' songs often sound like a collection of riffs written individually and collected into songs. That, combined with the guitars' start/stop dynamics, can result in stilted song flow. However, songs like "I Never Came" flow without impediment, as verses build into inevitable, seamless crescendos.
In spite of its hard-hitting power, Lullabies nevertheless drags as the album progresses. Three songs last longer than six minutes, and the record's final two tracks—"You Got A Killer Scene There, Man" and "Long Slow Goodbye"—are mostly restrained and lack powerful hooks. The record simply fades over the course of its final 11 minutes. Lullabies has established Homme as the arbiter of all things QOTSA, and he's obviously enjoying his role. But without other strong personalities in the band to rein him in, Homme's occasional excesses undercuts what makes QOTSA so great.