The title of Queens of the Stone Age’s new album will certainly provoke giggles given that this is their first new release since 2007, but it’s as if Josh Homme and company never left. …Like Clockwork is a welcome continuation of QOTSA’s syrupy groove, but the band also does all sorts of little things to establish a new chapter on this record. While the core of the group remains the same, Homme has widened his influence—there are guest appearances from Trent Reznor and Sir Elton John, in addition to usual suspects like Dave Grohl. The varied creative voices lend the record a kaleidoscopic air, swirling with FM radio’s various colors. The weary piano balladry of “The Vampyre of Time and Memory” contrasts with the desert afterburn of “My God is the Sun” and the muscular Bowie melodrama of “Kalopsia.” Over it all, Homme croons like a hard-rock mystic, timeless and omniscient.
June 13, 2013 — Greenfield Festival in Interlaken, Switzerland
June 14, 2013 — Pinkpop in Landgraaf, Netherlands
June 15, 2013 — Download Festival in Donington, United Kingdom
June 17, 2013 — Cirque Royale in Brussels, Belgium
June 19, 2013 — Trianon in Paris, France
June 21, 2013 — Southside Festival in Neuhausen ob Eck, Germany
June 22, 2013 — Zitadelle Spandau in Berlin, Germany
Check out more QOTSA’s tour dates here.
Queens of the Stone Age: …Like Clockwork, $12, matadorrecords.com
By Tom Forget
This review appears in the June/July 2013 issue of BUST Magazine with Courtney Love. Subscribe now.
