Queens of the Stone Age ...Like Clockwork 45rpm 2LP (Opaque Red Vinyl)

For their 2013 album - the first in six years - Joshua Homme's mighty Queens of the Stone Age called back classic members Dave Grohl and Joey Castillo on drums, and Nick Oliveri and Mark Lanegan on vocals. In addition, some big names came in to perform: Elton John, Trent Reznor, Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys), Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters), James Lavelle (U.N.K.L.E.) and more. Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman and Dean Fertita also feature throughout.

...Like Clockwork contains Homme's most intense, personal and beautiful songwriting to date. While the thunder of Queens past is still evident (especially in lead single "My God Is the Sun") there are a number of gorgeous ballads - meditations on time passing, the struggle to create art, and the nearness of mortality.

The music lives up to the album's lyrical and conceptual ambitions, with some of Homme's finest guitar work, at times recalling past greats such as Brian May or George Harrison, at other times uniquely his own. The rhythm section starts and stops on a dime, and in some of the more complex songs, the ensemble playing is virtuosic - but never sterile.

The striking album artwork, imagery and intro animations are by young British artist Boneface, working closely with Homme.

...Like Clockwork was nominated for two Grammy Awards, in the Best Rock Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical categories, while the group received a third nomination for the song "My God Is the Sun" in the category of Best Rock Performance.

Forceful, purposeful, fueled by dense interwoven riffs and colored with hints of piano and analog synthesizers that quite consciously evoke '70s future dystopia. QOTSA always specialized in this eerie sexiness, but the precision on ...Like Clockwork feels conceptually tight, Homme smartly sculpting guitar fuzz, elastic solos, haunted harmonies, and deceptively slinky rhythms into a cool, relentless collection of heavy rock.

This is tension, then more tension, then even more tension on the chorus until your subconscious has been thoroughly scrambled; only then does release come, usually in the form of a gnarled guitar solo.