Album of The Month: Queens of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork

 
I have been waiting for this one for some time.  Rarely do I get overly excited for an album release, I was for this one.  And boy did Josh Homme and company deliver.  As expected.

So.  Queens of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork.  It has been just over six years since QOTSA's previous 2007 release, Era Vulgaris.  Thus, ...Like Clockwork can justifiably be filed under the category of long-awaited.  In the fore-mentioned QOTSA-less time period leader Josh Homme was certainly not sitting on his ass counting his royalty checks, no he was busy with other projects such as Eagles of Death Metal and the Grammy-award winning Them Crooked Vultures with Led Zeppelin bass-man John Paul Jones and Foo Fighters leadman Dave Grohl on drums.  And Dave Grohl has been a "pseudo-behind-the-curtains-member" of QOTSA for quite some time having recorded on several of their past records including this current featured release.

I'll start by tagging a few keywords that I believe represent well the flavor of this record: dark, sexy, raunchy, grimy, and funky.  Good lord the funky on this record is truly revelatory.  There are even some sensitive moments which generally are quite rare to find on a Queens album.  All these attributes are wrapped up in the usual QOTSA poise and composure.  The textures and timbres found on this record are simply out of this world; par for the course for these fellas.  

The concise ten-track album runs the gamut of styles all under the umbrella of modern rock.  From the mid-tempo swinging grooves of "Keep Your Eyes Peeled" to the tender remorse of "The Vampyre of Time and Memory".  The alluring middle-eastern-tinged "I Sat By The Ocean" to the tribal stomping of "My God Is The Sun".  And the bawdy foor-on-the-floor "If I Had A Tail" to balls out, flailing rock in sections of "I Appear Missing".  All this is inevitably infused with signature rhythmic displacements and hilariously audacious lyrical declarations such as, "I blow my load over the status quo, hear we go..."

So thank you Queens of The Stone Age for satiating my need for some good 'ole gritty rock & roll stimulation.

Queens of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork on iTunes
Queens of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork on Spotify

Also, you can witness the power of QOTSA live in this video of their recent show at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theater in its entirety:


Happy listening all,

Ty