Lullabies to Paralyze

Lullabies to Paralyze is Queens of the Stone Age's 4th studio album, successor for Songs for the Deaf and predecessor for Era Vulgaris. It was released on March 21, 2005 on the CD edition and July 11, 2005 on the LP edition. It marks the first Queens album without the collaboration of Nick Oliveri, and also the first with the appearances of Joey Castillo and Troy Van Leeuwen as permanent band membrers. It is known for the singles In My Head (which featured the soundtrack for Need For Speed: Underground 2), Little Sister and Burn the Witch.

Background
As of after the Songs for the Deaf tour, Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri had fallen out for personal reasons, which lead to Oliveri leaving the band, whilst Joey Castillo and Troy Van Leeuwen became permanent members of the band and helped writing the next studio album. The sound shifted towards a less heavy, hard, desert riff-rock and into a more dense, dark atmosphere, while still containing the riff-rock factor. That can be more purely noticed on songs like Tangled Up in Plaid, Burn the Witch and The Blood is Love. Initially, four videos were produced for the album; however, Someone's in the Wolf did not turn out as a single, given it's length, and so only the Burn the Witch, In My Head and Little Sister videos were published on TV. The Someone's in the Wolf video was featured, however, on the DVD edition of the album.

While many fans agree that the song Everybody Knows that You're Insane talks about Oliveri's destructive behavior on and off-stage, Homme said otherwise, saying that if he wanted to write a song about Nick, he would write a song about him.

This album counts with many guest appearances: Billy Gibbons, from ZZ Top; Jack Black; Shirley Manson, from Garbage; Mark Lanegan; Alain Johannes; Josh Freese; Brody Dalle; Chris Goss; Dave Catching; Jesse Hughes; The Main Street Horns and Joe Barresi. Later on, Alain and his wife, Natasha Schneider, joined in the band for touring.

Fun Facts
During the recording stage for Lullabies to Paralyze, it was intended for the Fun Machine Took a Shit and Died ! demo be originally released. There was also the intention of releasing a I Wanna Make it Wit Chu take on that era, but the song turned out as an outtake. It was released later on, on Era Vulgaris, turning into Make it Wit Chu.

Tracklisting
No.       Track Title                                                        Lead Vocals        Length
 * Like a Drug is listed as a bonus track.

Features

 * Mark Lanegan sings lead vocals on 'This Lullaby', co-lead on 'Precious and Grace' and backing vocals on 'Burn the Witch' and '"You've Got a Killer Scene There, Man..."'
 * Chris Goss sings backing vocals on '"You've Got a Killer Scene There, Man..."', 'Burn the Witch' and 'Someone's In The Wolf'
 * Billy Gibbons plays guitar and backing vocals on 'Burn the Witch', guitar and co-leads on 'Precious and Grace' and guitar on 'Like a Drug'.
 * Dave Catching plays the opening guitar in 'The Blood is Love'.
 * Jack Black handclaps and stomps on 'Burn the Witch', and is seen doing the same for 'Broken Box' on the Lullabies to Paralyze DVD.
 * Jesse Hughes plays flute on 'Someone's in the Wolf'
 * Shirley Manson sings backing vocals in '"You've Got a Killer Scene There, Man..."'
 * Brody Dalle sings backing vocals in  '"You've Got a Killer Scene There, Man..."'
 * Joe Baressi plays the triangle in 'Tangled Up In Plaid'