REVIEW: Kings of Leon

KINGS OF LEON

Come Around Sundown
RCA

After the success of Only by the Night the Kings of Leon are faced with navigating the very perilous waste land of “how do we make an even better record than our last one and achieve critical acclaim and sell a billion units so we do not get dropped”. As you can appreciate this wasteland is littered with the decaying corpses of bands who have attempted this very feat and failed. You see, unfortunately not every band is Pink Floyd capable of churning out career defining masterpieces time and time again or REM for following up Out of Time with the equally happy, inoffensive, radio-friendly rock of Automatic for the People.  Of course the problem is manifested by the band having to choose whether to essentially make Only by the Night Part 2, which would result in sales and keep the fans happy but might result in a lambasting by the music press and in turn stifle the band’s creativity and leave them feeling artistically impotent. The second option is to pursue with much vigor whatever artistic urges they may have and produce a record that reflects this.  This strategy is a far more risky option as it can result in unilateral rejection and vindication from unforgiving fans not having their hunger for tepid stadium rock anthems satisfied and critics eager to stab the knife in, keen to punish any band who dares to achieve any level of success.

The Kings of Leon face further complications with the context of the reception of Only by the Night. Despite its success there can be no denying the polarizing effect it had on many OG (original gangsta) followers of the band. Many were displeased the band had dispensed its hallmark sound of upbeat southern rock blended with blues and odd vocals and replaced it with a more stadium and alternative rock flavour to the songs. There were even whispers that the Kings of Leon were now the new U2 without the gaelic charm, stupid names (The Edge) and overly flamboyant and extravagant stage shows.

I cannot say I have ever been a fan of the band. Their earlier records certainly had an original and unique sound to them and Only by the Night was even to my untrained ear a more polished, commercial sounding record. Once I even used to really like Sex on Fire, the mournfulness and longing in the melody sung in the chorus is very powerful and echoed well by the haunting guitar line. Unfortunately it just makes me think of a girl I once dated so if I ever hear it I collapse into a jibbering heap on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. Yes, the relationship did not turn out how I hoped it might have. But still my inability to maintain a relationship is not something I can blame the Kings of Leon for. That would be slightly unfair.

I also think it is pretty awesome how they are all brothers, except for the one who is their cousin and they were like from some innocuous corner of the USA  and suddenly became really successful and then all moved to London. Those kind of stories always make for good hearing as their success is derived from hard work and creating music people want to listen to, so it makes it hard to have any sort of vendetta against the band as it is like fair enough your success is down to this. Rather than a band whose parents are all like millionaires (The Strokes) so are already about five million rungs up the ladder than you are due to their affluence.

Come Around Sundown in title alone sounds like it should have preceded Only by the Night. In a kind of OCD way this makes me feel uncomfortable unless the next record is also named after a time of day that happens before sundown. Meet me in the mid-afternoon for example would be an acceptable choice as it would be a continuation of the times of day theme started with Only by the Night, and more importantly would be following in the correct chronological order even though it would have been reversed. However this unrelated to the real subject matter of this article. What does the new record sound like?

In my opinion it appears the band have opted to play it safe and stay true to the sound and feel of their last record. There is perhaps a lack of any particular standout tracks. Most of them coalesce to create a soundscape of ploddy bass lines, bits of jangly guitar, with a little anguished tainted singing on the side, which is exactly what I would have expected the record to sound like. If I had more faith in my own hunches I could have gotten away with writing this review without even having listened to it.

The songs themselves are all fine following traditional songs structures you would expect from a band of this type. Great as the Kings of Leon maybe, they are no Tool or Meshuggah creating music out of bizarre time signatures that by rights should not make sense at all. Neither are they the Wu-Tang Clan with their aggressive blend of gangsta rap and hip-hop with philosophising undertones hinting at an inspired intelligence and perception beneath the darkness of the street.

Album opener The End does sound like Sex on Fire Part 2 or More Sex on Fire as I like to call it. Not bad but clearly very early on setting the listener up for the tone of the record.  Among the songs that standout is the country infused Back Down South, which sounds errr... a bit country if you had not worked that out already by its title. There is also a surfy almost Beach Boys feel to the cleverly titled Beach Side. When I listened to it all I could think of was a Hawian flavoured pizza. Make of that what you will.

At the end of the day Come Around Sundown treads much of the same ground as its predecessor. Considering the success of that record and how many people liked it then that can be no bad thing for the fans and for RCA’s bank balance. If you were expecting or anticipating something else that might be more progress or experimental then you probably a) should not be listening to the Kings or Leon and b) are an idiot because that is not the sound of a million plus unit shifting stadium rock band. In the words of Gun’n’Roses maybe you should f?!* off and go and buy something from the new age section.

WORDS: NERVOSO72826