Stephen McGovern
Currently #1 in the Irish charts, ...Like Clockwork will reshape your taste in music.
I once lined up outside of the Olympia Theatre a couple of years back to see Queens Of The Stone Age. A bus parked across the road from the Dublin venue and out of it came Josh Homme and company. Carrying their own gear, they simply walked across the street without even thinking about looking one way or the other, passed us waiting fans nonchalantly and headed inside for their sound check. It may have been a walk down the road, but it proved to everyone there that they just oozed rock and roll.
...Like Clockwork does nothing to assuage that line of thinking. Among their fans, it's merely taken as a fact, and this album is now proving to everyone what we knew for years: QOTSA are one of the greatest rock bands of this era, if not ever.
'Keep Your Eyes Peeled' is a slow, droopy start to such a hugely anticipated album (certainly nothing like Foo Fighter's furious 'Bridge Burning' opening to Wasting Light), yet once that unmistakeable Queens' sound drops, the only thing that comes to mind is: "the wait is over, they're back." And it feels awesome.
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'The Vampyre Of Time And Memory' conveys pain, sorrow and vulnerability all in the one go. A false sense of joy is briefly given in the sarcastic line "I'm alive, hooray!", a clear reference to Homme's near-death experience in 2010, followed by "I feel no love." Despair is forever hot on your heels. "Does anyone ever get this right?"
Subsequently, 'If I Had A Tail' is a far more driven and mean song, tough and even disturbing. At this point I realise how weird it is not having Joey Castillo on drums, having been fired after ten years in the group, although Dave Grohl is a more than adequate replacement in the studio. His drumming this time around is a lot more reserved and attentive than his last appearance on a QOTSA record, 2002's Song For The Deaf.
The lead single 'My God Is The Sun', a track we have known about for a few months now, is a dark and heavy anthem. Arriving slap bang in the middle of the album, it offers the meatballs to this delicious marinara of a record and arguably confirms LC as a true rock album of our time.
'Kalopsia' fuses the sombre with the aggressive, while 'Smooth Sailing' comes across as an old school track that is catchy and domineering, excellent dancing material. Title song '...Like Clockwork' puts a gorgeous full-stop on proceedings.
Putting the queen into Queens Of The Stone Age, Elton John collaborates with the band on 'Fairweather Friends'. A brilliantly uplifting number, the awesome riffs are complemented expertly by Elton's amazing work on the piano.
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One of the best tracks you will hear all year is 'I Appear Missing'. The longest track here, it is a very powerful piece of work and perhaps finally encapsulates the 'desert way' that Homme has been banging on about for nearly two decades.
While Queens' sixth LP is only ten tracks long, it is one the defining records of the last ten years. Every song is deep, meaningful and hemmed with sorrow, but never depressing. It is a master class in balance, an art form this band is well versed in. To paraphrase Homme himself, rock music should hard enough for the boys, and soft enough for the girls.
A+
