It was Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner who came up with the song title. Frontman Josh Homme told NME: "I called him one day a few years ago, when I was first starting to think about the possibility of getting to make a record and said 'hey man, give me a good line.'"
"He hit me back and he was like "kalopsia", and I said "kalopsia, what the hell's that?" and he said "it's a condition wherein everything seems more beautiful than it actually is."

Homme produced the Arctic Monkey's 2009 album, Humbug and also sung backup on their track "All My Own Stunts." Turner returned the favour by singing back up on the …Like Clockwork track, "If I Had A Tail."

Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor supplied backing vocals for this tune. "I didn't know if I could make a record again," Homme told NME. "and I don't know why, but I called Trent. I wanted him to produce the record and I didn't have many songs or know what I was doing and was completely lost. I just said, 'Man, you wanna have some coffee?', and he came to my studio and we talked for about five and a half, six hours.
" I talked to him about producing the record," he continued. "And then I went back into a like (acts decrepit) for a while, buzzing like a fridge I guess. Then when I came back he was starting the Nine Inch Nails record so he didn't produce my record, but he helped me a lot."

Boneface created the animated video for the track. The UK artist also provided the artwork for the ...Like Clockwork album. Homme first came across Boneface in an American magazine called Juxtapoz.