"Queens of the Stone Age" received generally positive reviews from critics. Writing for "NME", reviewer Kitty Empire scored it 8 out of 10, comparing it to Kyuss and saying that "for all its indisputable primitive charms, "Queens of the Stone Age" is actually a step forward in stoner evolution. The guitars are still flint-hard, the tunes still load-bearing. But the sound roaring out of the speakers is far sleeker and more hypnotic than the dumb chug that stoner rock has periodically devolved into in Homme's absence. The excellent 'Regular John' sounds almost motorik, as though Neu! had level billing with one strange night. There are keyboards and maracas on the very un-stone age 'I Was a Teenage Hand Model'. And Homme—who didn't sing in Kyuss—frequently swaps his bone-dry metallic tones for something a little more soulful on songs like 'You Can't Quit Me Baby'." Tom Sinclair of "Entertainment Weekly" gave it a B- rating, remarking that the band "delivers a workmanlike collection of heavy music that's just a bit too cerebral to fall under the stoner rock rubric (Fu Manchu). "Queens of the Stone Age" is intermittently potent, but when you hear the ripped-off 'If Only' (a.k.a. the Stooges' 'I Wanna Be Your Dog'), you can't help but think QOTSA might be a great band—if only they could write a song that good on their own."