The new Queens of the Stone Age album, Songs for the Deaf, hits the street tomorrow, and it's a good one. You might have already heard about a bit of a fuss the new album caused in the UK, where 37 people using sign language were disappointed to learn that QOTSA were not actually performing, um, songs for the deaf.

For the rest of us, there are few missteps on this album. I generally don't like extraneous interludes or fake radio announcers or belches or gargling on an album. Of course, when you're the artist, you have complete power (until the producers knock on the door), and it seems to be difficult to resist the urge to include things like this. For QOTSA, the temptation too great to resist is a fake radio announcer. Okay, they don't like "clone" radio, we get it. We got it the first time. So stop already.

Most notably ruined by these antics is the first track, You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar But I Feel Like A Millionaire. After nearly a minute of admittedly clever mocking of a drive-time DJ, and a very quiet bit of guitar work, the song explodes at 63 seconds in a way I can only guess was designed to deafen any listener who had already attempted to set their volume based on the signal so far. Maybe that's the reason for the album title? As it happens, a friend took the brunt of the sonic impact the first time through and warned me as I was about to turn up the volume myself, so I was lucky. Once the music does start, the track is solid stright-up rock and roll.

No One Knows is trailed by a fake radio announcement in Spanish. It seemed familiar to me as a former resident of Southern California, but I wonder how many people nationwide know the joy of finding predominantly Spanish-language stations while searching the dial? The song itself is one of the album's best. The beat bounces throughout the song, tying together a syncopated guitar riff during the verses with a solid wall of guitar sound during the chorus. While the musical sound of the song changes several times and maintains a hard edge throughout, the vocals are smooth without fail from beginning to end.

I can't quite figure out First It Giveth. The chorus is catchy, and the music is melodic while keeping a hard edge. But the chorus says little more than "First it giveth, then it taketh away." Very Biblical, but what does it mean? In Scripture, the reference is from the book of Job, and it is hotly disputed whether the statement describes accurate doctrine, or is merely a quotation of a character in the story. In any case, as QOTSA have substituted "it" for God and re-phrased the statement to imply inevitability, I'd be very curious to know what the subject of the song actually is. However, the vocals for this track are mixed so far back that I can't easily make out the lyric. What I have been able to make out seems to be roughly nonsense. "I'm in you - you're in me - I can't tell" and "loyal to - only you - up your sleeve" stand out, along with "on the hook - take a leg - part a way." If this is truly nonsense, written only as an excuse for the almost-hypnotic chorus, I understand completely. It's a chorus worth writing nonsense to support.