Excess is hard to come by on “… Like Clockwork,” the first full-length release from Queens of the Stone Age in more than six years.
Despite a slate of appearances by high-profile guest players like the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and Nine Inch Nails progenitor Trent Reznor, the Queens of the Stone Age shy away from overindulgence on the album’s 10 tracks. The band’s roots in ‘70s glam rock and earnest showmanship are as unadulterated as ever, and a six-year lapse hasn’t filtered the group’s skill for visceral and vibrant rock. Fuzz tone-drenched power chords, falsetto-tinged vocals and melodramatic lyrical strains are the keys to this record’s success, just as they’ve been the linchpin in some of the band’s most memorable previous work.
That’s not to say the record feels entirely uniform; the tone and timbre of the album veer from the brooding, David Bowie-esque rock balladry “If I Had a Tail” to the bluesy, foreboding feel of “Keep Your Eyes Peeled.” The opening vocal chorus on “Fairweather Friends” offers the epic feel of a round from Queen before the song turns into a confessional and intimate rock ballad; the dense and dizzying guitar lines on “I Appear Missing” are hypnotic.
There’s an impressive mix of approaches here. Even so, the album’s ambitious mix of sounds comes with a constant element of simplicity and earnestness. Queens of the Stone Age founder, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Josh Homme hasn’t gained any fondness for studio effects, auto-tuned vocal supplements or backing synthesizers. Songs like “I Sat by the Ocean” and “My God is the Sun” rely on unadorned and familiar ingredients – the guitar work is stark and driving, the lead vocals rely on emotion over polish and even the most studied and complex stretches of guitar solos are anchored in a basic aesthetic.
That comes through in the lyrics, too. Don’t look for overwrought metaphors or fancy wordplay here. Homme’s approach to writing is simple and straightforward, and many times that approach is used to convey some pretty dour themes. “Big smile, really a show of teeth, without a care in a world of fear,” he sings on “Keep Your Eyes Peeled,” adding, “Lonely, you don’t know how I feel/Praise God, Nothing is as it seems.” “I Appear Missing” offers disoriented images pulled from an emergency room; “If I Had a Tail” contrasts simple words with heavy contexts. Homme rattles off words like “pain,” “flies” and “lobotomy.”
The title track sums up the stark, sometimes bleak approach to imagery and observation. “Not everything that goes around comes back around you know/Holding on too long is just fear of letting go,” Homme sings in high tones, backed by plodding piano chords and soft guitar strums. “One thing that is clear it’s all down hill from here,” he adds, before a blistering round of guitar solos kicks in.
That kind of lyrical dreariness can get a bit draining, especially since it marks the entirety of the record. The Queens of the Stone Age have never been a happy band, but Homme’s love for all things glam rock definitely has a moody effect here. Happily, there’s enough straight-ahead rock and roll to lift the spirits during the darker lyrical stretches. Despite Homme’s lyrical assertion, this album makes it clear that the future isn’t all downhill for the Queens of the Stone Age.