In the run-up to Kings of Leon's fifth album, frontman Caleb Followill fretted publicly over his band's swelling popularity. Sorry, dude: That horse left the barn a while ago. The Kings' last album, 2008's Only by the Night, sold 6.5 million copies worldwide, they now headline arenas all over, and the Grammy-grabbing "Use Somebody" has been covered by everyone from Paramore to Trey Songz. If Wilco and My Morning Jacket are vying for the title of America's Radiohead, Kings of Leon have — Bono's honorary green card notwithstanding — become our U2. And the gigantic-sounding Come Around Sundown suggests that, Caleb's humble grumblings aside, they are thriving on it.
Listen to "The Face," a slow-fuse power ballad that conjures a stadium full of singing fans and slow-turning mirror balls. Or "The End," where the band's once lean and scrappy guitar sound becomes an Edge-like tsunami. But the Kings' personality hasn't been lost in the supersizing — the group manages to tweak its sound several times over. The fiddle-spiked "Back Down South" heads into dark backwoods-kegger territory. "Mary" flirts with doo-wop, mating pop falsettos with Matthew Followill's punk-glam rawk riffing. "Pony Up" is an itchy funk tune that surprisingly recalls Talking Heads.
Caleb's voice, meanwhile, remains a thing of slithering, boozy Tennessee beauty. Witness "Birthday." It's a slinky rocker in the spirit of 50 Cent's "In Da Club," except there's no club, shawty's nose is bloodied, and Caleb is walking her home, stumbling, laughing and spilling drinks along the way. Down-homey and over-the-top, "Birthday" recalls the Kings' gruff-sounding garage-rock days. But it's just a glimpse in the rearview by a band with its foot on the accelerator.
Puntaje:4/5
PopMatters Review:
Last year, the lovably corny "Use Somebody" turned these Southern-rock road dogs into real-deal pop stars, but if Kings of Leon have (finally!) become their generation's Lynyrd Skynyrd, Come Around Sundown makes for a strangely fretful victory lap. "This could be the end," Caleb Followill moans on the album's opening track, and you can't help suspecting that the frontman's tent-revival childhood has left him unable to enjoy a hard-won good time. Free as a bird? Not this guy.
Produced by Angelo Petraglia and Jacquire King, who worked on 2008's Only by the Night, Sundown shares that album's cascading guitar tone and sleepy-sexy rhythmic throb; lead single "Radioactive" even makes room for a "Tumbling Dice"--style gospel choir. Yet where "Use Somebody" and "Sex on Fire" slouched toward arena-rousing anthemhood, new songs like "Pickup Truck" and "Pony Up" trace knottier shapes, reluctant to reveal their charms too easily. In "Back Down South," the Kings jam on a fiddle-assisted country-rock groove that threatens to flower into Rattle and Hum ebullience; instead, the payoff remains somewhere beyond the horizon.
The result of all this hemming and hawing is a captivating reminder of how much weirder this band is than its reputation. Still, sometimes you wish Followill would just torch the motherfucker. "I won't ever be your cornerstone," he sings in "Pyro." Hey, it's his after-party.
Less than 30 seconds in to “The End”, the first song on their new full-length, I had an uncomfortable flash. The lyrics, those that are decipherable through Caleb Followill’s marble-mouthed delivery anyway, reminded me of the same kind of small town, big dreams, fist pumping, mock-Springsteen anthems which became popular radio fodder in the late ‘80s. I tried to ignore it, but it wouldn’t go away: Kings of Leon, with their tight trousers, pointy shoes, sleeveless tops and earnest lyrics are one can of Aqua Net away from turning into a Bon Jovi tribute band.
Resisting a backlash is healthy, so when the world of the cool cognoscenti uniformly turned its back on Kings of Leon after they got insanely popular two years ago with their fourth album, Only By the Night, it only made me love them more. Well, “love” is a bit strong, because Kings of Leon don’t come off like they want love anyway. For all their fabulous bluster, they’ve always been more of an awkward-fumbling-in-the-backseat-then-not-returning-phone-calls kind of a band. That worked for them, and it became absurdly clear they knew it in 2008 when they released the hilariously titled “Sex on Fire” and the presciently titled “Use Somebody”.
If making the transition from hirsute indie rockers to stadium filler shortlisted for Glee theme episodes was the plan all along, it’s paid off brilliantly.
But perhaps within the KOL cookie cutter tunes on Come Around Sundown are a few clues to what the future might have in store for the band, as well. Consider the likes of Darius Rucker, Jewel and Kid Rock, three middle-of-the road acts who turned dwindling commercial results into pure gold by “going country”. There are more blatant nods to their rural lineage than ever before (“The Face”, “Pickup Truck” and especially the pseudo-party stomp “Back Down South”), so perhaps a straight out contemporary country album isn’t far behind.
While much of the music here comes on like it’s been cut from the same drab cloth, the album is even less convincing when it goes astray: “Mary” is astonishingly bad, a ‘50s pastiche on which Caleb eventually gives up on lyrics entirely and bellows like a hyena trapped in a cage.
Come Around Sundown will undoubtedly give the fans who didn’t realize Only By the Night wasn’t really the first Kings of Leon album something to cheer about, but anyone hoping for a return to the relative insanity of “Holy Roller Novocaine” and “Trani”, the honest inferiority complex of “Soft” or the initial thrill of hearing Jared’s bass treated like a lead guitar isn’t likely to find much to sink their teeth into this time around.
Kings of Leon arrived like a hillbilly Ramones with a modicum of darkness and depth, but there’s nothing below the surface anymore. They’re making shitloads of money in an era when few existing bands can manage the same, so it’s a little hard to blame them for trying to continue the thread that got them to where they are in the first place. But that doesn’t mean it’s all that fun to listen to.
Come Around Sundown isn’t a total disaster. “Radioactive” is a terrifically energetic romp, and “The End”, “Pyro” and “Pickup Truck” are not dissimilar to some of the band’s past successes, and it’s not difficult to imagine some of the whole echoing off the back walls of massive stadiums. But the muddy guitars, falling-down-stairs beats, trebly bass and lupine yelps all blend together after a while like a reheated stew that was far more tasty the first time around. It’s an album that feels more about hanging on to the sudden influx of fans than about moving the message (whatever that is) forward. Whether that’s good or bad really depends upon your point of view.
Puntaje:5/10
Culture Bully Review:
Since its release in September of 2008, Kings of Leon‘s Only by the Night has sold some 6.2 million copiesworldwide, becoming the highest selling digital album in history in the process, has earned the band four Grammy Awards in addition to a slew of other prizes around the world, and has never really left the Billboard 200. The breakout record skyrocketed the group to “stadium” status which evolved into the role of headliner at such festivals as Bonnaroo and the prestigious Glastonbury and Reading festivals in the UK. But the success came with a price: fans and critics alike balked at the band’s shift in direction, its uncharacteristically pristine sound, and the gaudiness of such songs as the massive “Sex on Fire.” Perhaps the most glaring issue that arose from the band’s success was within the group itself, however; most notably lead vocalist Caleb Followill who has gone off on fans (calling newer supporters “Not fucking cool”), the band (“We know you’re sick of Kings of Leon. We’re fucking sick of Kings of Leon too”), and the music (calling “Sex on Fire” a “Piece of shit”). As David Smyth of the London Evening Standard explained recently, leading up to the release of Come Around Sundown the band of brothers is in a rare state of limbo, “Kings of Leon are at a point where they need to decide whether this breath-restricting altitude is where they really want to be.” And to call the struggle “apparent” within the album would be a gross understatement.
One of the main points of curiosity concerning Only by the Night was its distinctly polished sound compared to the band’s past work, something which the band attempts to confront with Come Around Sundown. The album is nothing if not cohesive-sounding—glistening with much the same production value as Only by the Night—but the band has made an obvious attempt to add a sense of familiarity which was lacking from the multi-platinum success. “The End” is a looping, distorted ballad, “Pony Up” features a bouncy bass line that signals back to some of the band’s earlier records, and “Mi Amigo” comes closer to a classic rock vibe than anything else the band has done in recent memory. Even Sundown‘s lead single, “Radioactive,” features an invigorating guitar line that coils itself around the track’s infectious hook. But despite its reinvigorated sound, Come Around Sundown is still ripe with that air of uncertainty which Smyth previously alluded to.
The hook to “The Immortals,” for instance, bleeds stadium-sized swagger, with Caleb bellowing “Out on the streets and stars, and ride away/Find out what you are, face to face.” Despite appearing distraught over tracks like “Sex on Fire,” “Pickup Truck” suggests that there’s no immediate lack of egocentric lyrics passing through the band’s songwriting sessions, “Walk you home to see where you’re living around, and I know this place/Pour yourself on me and you know I’m the one that you won’t forget.” The most glaring source of frustration comes with “No Money” however, Caleb lyrically battling between what he has and what he wants, looking at his success and still feeling emotionally bankrupt, “I got no money but I want you so/I got so much I cannot handle.” Unlike the band’s previous efforts which centered around Nashville as a base, Sundown was recorded in New York City, which only seemed to add to the stress of the situation. Caleb recently explained, “It was kind of a depressing experience. If we’d made it is Nashville, we’d be out playing basketball or goofing off. Here, I’d wake up and hail a cab to the studio, then spend 12 hours a day in a room with no windows.” He added, “It felt like we were going to the office.” And as “No Money” winds down this ambivalence is only amplified, “And all this pissin’ around, cut me loose of this fucking town: I ain’t comin’ back.”
And that seems to be one of the main issues the group has had over the past two years: a sense of being lost. While financially secure for generations to come, they were essentially thrust into superstardom, and as Caleb’s aforementioned comments reveal, there’s an internal conflict that comes with that. “The End” bluntly uncovers this feeling, “I ain’t got a home, I feel all alone,” while “Pyro” wallows in a feeling sadness, “All the black inside me is slowly seeping from the bone/Everything I cherish is slowly dying or it’s gone,” and “The Face” outright calls for a return home, “If you give up New York I’ll give you Tennessee/The only place to be.” The obviously-titled “Back Down South” takes this feeling one step further in shifting not only the lyrical focus, but the musical focus toward the style that the band was so longing for; a slide, fiddle and acoustic guitars accompany a chorus of hollers and laughter as the song closes out, “I’m going back down south now.”
At this point in time, it would be easy to be one of the many who are sick of Kings of Leon. For two years the band has seemingly been exposed on near-Lagy Gaga proportions, and you’d be insane to think that you’ve heard a song like “Use Somebody” for the last time. But it doesn’t make much sense to be overly critical of a band for using the tools which were made available to them, nor does it make sense to mock success simply for the sake of doing so. All of that is in the past now, and Come Around Sundown reveals itself to be the first step in a shift toward what made the Followill brothers so alluring in the first place. Sure, there are songs like the oddly placed malt-shop rock of “Mary,” but there are also songs like the vaguely twangy “Birthday,” which is far sexier—lyrically—than anything having to do with someone’s sex being on fire, “We’re gonna come together, we’re gonna celebrate/We’re gonna gather around like it’s your birthday/I don’t want to know just what I’m gonna do/I don’t care where you’re goin’, I’m coming home with you.” If you keep an open mind you’re likely to find a solid mainstream rock album that sounds much more like a product of band that enjoys “goofing off” more than it does “going to the office.” Time will tell which of the two directions the group takes—whether they chase success or continue the search for soul—but if Come Around Sundown is any indication, the future of Kings of Leon will be just as enjoyable as the band’s past has been.
Puntaje : Positivo
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