Songs For The Deaf - Release and Reception

Release and 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.

Like its predecessor, Songs for the Deaf received very positive reviews, aggregated as a total score of 89 out of 100 ("universal acclaim") on Metacritic, making the album the third highest rated on the site from 2002. 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. 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.

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).