...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 to date, 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.
"Clockwork is the first Queens record to feel like a conscious return to a previous sonic identity; though perversely, it evokes the group's least-known period the Devo meet Black Sabbath nerviness of their 1998 self-titled debut... 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... It should be noted that this all sounds fantastic. The band self-produced Clockwork with James Lavelle, the man from trip-hop-rock collective U.N.K.L.E., and the full-bodied guitars, crisp drum fills, and naturalist dynamic range further fuel the ongoing Steely Dan studio-rat revival that Frank Ocean helped kick-start and Daft Punk amplified... This is an album about ratcheting up the tension, which means it's also an album about sex and death: the two ultimate forms of release. (I mean, just look at that album cover.)"
- Michael Tedder - SPIN
