...Like Clockwork

...Like Clockwork is the band's sixth album, released by Matador Records on 3 June 2013 in Britain and 4 June in the United States, produced by Josh Homme, the band and James Lavelle. It is the first part of the trilogy they made for Matador. Making it was hard. Homme had knee surgery in 2011 that went badly wrong; he later said it was an MRSA infection connected to drug use. He spent four months bedridden and fell into a deep depression. Joey Castillo, the band's drummer for a decade, left during the sessions, and Dean Fertita said: "We were maybe about a third of the way in, so there was still a lot of work to do. That was an emotional thing for us." Homme explained the title by the rhythm of the work: "We'd have these great victories and then something would go south for a bit, and we'd go, 'It's like clockwork!'" Three drummers play on it — Castillo on tracks one to three and six, Dave Grohl on four, five and seven to nine, and Jon Theodore on the title track. The guests are many: Trent Reznor takes a co-lead vocal on "Kalopsia", Mark Lanegan and Elton John sing on "Fairweather Friends" with John also at the piano, Nick Oliveri and Alex Turner sing on "If I Had a Tail" and Jake Shears on the opener. It went to number one on the Billboard 200, the band's first American chart-topper, and to two in Britain, with number ones in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Portugal and Scotland. Metacritic scored it 82 from forty-six reviews, AllMusic gave it five stars out of five, and it was nominated for three Grammy Awards.