I’m genuinely not trying to court controversy here – but Kings of Leon keep getting worse. They seem to subscribe to the misguided notion that epic = maturity. Slow your tunes down, put out any fire you had when you formed your band and people will marvel at how you’re progressing and how you’re growing and getting more deep.
In interviews, Kings of Leon talk about all the experience they have after three albums, how they want their work to be an improvement on the last. This manifests itself in their new records sounding more considered, more produced, less vital and ultimately much more boring than their debut. Part of the reason why I dislike their latest albums is a problem of my own making, I admit it. The genre they dabbled with in the beginning – southern rock a la Lynyrd Skynrd and Creedence Clearwater Revival – is a genre very close to my heart. The prospect of a new band ploughing that kind of musical furrow, but with some contemporary suss, was a very exciting one when they started out .
Their first few gigs in London were awesome. But ever since then, they’ve been leaving their southern roots behind and treading more tried and tested indie rock waters. With the result that there’s nothing unique or interesting about them. They’re just dull college rock wannabees these days. Take album opener Closer. Listening to that is like a slow death. It plods along, filling your ears with musical treacle. Never getting to the point, doing nothing interesting, wasting 4 valuable minutes of your life.
Use Somebody sounds like bad Brian Adams. But with Chris Martin penning the chorus. And some really horrible Level 42 bass playing. It’s nasty – the album’s low point for me. You’d hope a song with a title like ‘Revelry’ to pick things up a bit. But boy, is that one dull fucking song. It’s bad M Doughty, without his lyrical wit. Current single Sex on Fire is by far the stand out track on the album, and even then it’s not a patch on The Strokes at their best (recalling The Modern Age in the intro).
If you think I’m exaggerating their decline – head over to their myspace site. Flick through all the tunes, and you’ll find their debut single Molly’s Chambers to be a shining southern rock diamond in a juke box full of dog shit.
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Sex on Fire is good once
Sex on Fire is good once you've drunk a bottle of Maker's Mark in Copenhagen
Surely anything is good
once you’ve drunk a bottle of Maker’s Mark in Copehagen?Some turdish relic, it will be forgotten!
Kings of Leon are riding on hype that just won't stop. People just don't know any better I guess.
I think KOL's point of difference is that they are so clumsy, awkward and painfully simple in their songwriting that people mistake it for originality. In other words, if shit is played enough, and it's banal enough to not offend, people will dig it. It's just like any other kind of awful pop, simple enough to get in your head for a second, polite enough to not offend, and being pushed by global hype.
Songs like "sex on fire", which is actually ok, will be long forgotten.... I hope.
No
Scathing and a load of bollocks to boot. Good day, sir.
You have your opinion, I have mine
I would like to agree with Dave in saying that 'Use Somebody' is just an over-blown, lame anthemic song a la recent U2 (or "bad Brian Adams" that was a good call!) Other than that song plus 3 more songs...
(dare I say it to you Indie snobs? Oh my I should...)
IT'S A SOLID ALBUM!
It's more commercial and anthemic yes, but to me the songwriting is much more cohesive and tight when compared to the first album. Personally, the country tinges seemed so amaterish in the first album and it annoyed me. I only got into them with Aha, which gets my vote for their best album although BOTT was just as good. Anyone willing to debate with me can go ahead- just remember that BOTT did have some rocking tunes (Ragoo, McFearless, My Party, Black Thumbnail, Charmer anyone?) if you're going to say "oh but I loved the fact that they were so amateurish and raw" and "they were more rock" and yada yada plus more same bullshit comments like those. Oh and I look forward to comments like:
"Oh you're not a real KOL fan if u got into them after Youth!".
BRING IT ON BITCHES!
I'm all for bands trying new directions
As long as the new directions aren't shit ones.
I'm not suggesting that they stay stuck in a rut - I just think it's a shame they didn't stick to a genre they did well. To me, it's disappointing that they've become another indie schmindie also ran band.
I have seen them live a couple of times - at the Metro and the Garage. And they were great, if a little arrogant.
Talking of arrogant, no need to be patronising about producing. There are lots of producers I admire, (Ethan Johns is a good and apt example in this case) but not ones who polish a bands sound so much that all you can see is the producer's reflection.
erm...what?
You obviously have a serious issue and like the type of music they started playing.
If a band has to deter their musical development in order to please a narrow minded critic's likes and dislikes then they may as well just stop creating music.
What you have obviously failed to realise is that the Kings Of Leon are moving in a direction which they all seem to have different inputs to making a successful virtue. You can really hear how Caleb's voice has developed, and how he can control it in a way that he couldn't on their debut, as well as the more adventurous bass lines and drum patterns that add to the new textures they are creating.
To say that it is just any old indie is nonsense. They are one band that is regularly releasing material as they go along and progress, as opposed to the many other bands out their who are very capable but wait to long and then just release the same old stuff each time.
You're surely not suggesting that by their 4th album they should still just be doing the same old stuff they did on their debut? If you are then this is fairly ignorant.
And to compare them to Coldplay is just silly, because Coldplay's latest material is just pop really using more instruments than the band actually consists of (and i'd question if they were all involved in the latest single).
Besides, who cares if they're 'produced'. Do you even understand what producing is? If not, then i'll enlighten you. Producing is allowing someone else, or multiple people, usually very experienced in the industry to have an input into your songwriting, helping you to see things and view perspectives and ideas that you would have not thought of otherwise. Just because a band has a producer it doesn't mean that they're The Spice Girls.
The Kings Of Leon develop, please and draw more fans with their eclectic song writing, and i can guarantee will continue to be as successful as they have been.
If you have ever seen them live you will know that they play most of their back catalogue, continuing to a phenomenal standard the "southern rock diamonds" they are still known and loved for.
Please have an open mind when bands want to move in a different direction before slating them for having proactive minds.
it sounds to me that your
it sounds to me that your all freaks and the type of people that stop liking a band when they become big
Exactly
Couldn't agree more about this marginal, banal album. It's as by the numbers as Nickelback and stupid as Motley Crue, yet people put them on a pedestal as if they're the saviors of rock or something. It's a mass delusion and it needs to stop spreading.
Kings of Hum drum
What Dirge. I tried very, very hard to listen to this album without skipping through to the next track.
I look forward to the next album in the hope that in the mean time they all go on extensive mind expanding drug binges, and endure some hardship on differing levels in order that they have something interesting to write.
One half decent song an album isn't very good.
Utter drivel.
But fair though?
Scathing but fair?
Completley fair. The album
Completley fair. The album is as predictable and faceless as everything else they play on drivetime FM radio, and that does well in the charts because of the sheer number of people in the modern day "easy listening" market, who gobble up all the mush, be it god awful ballad mush, competition winner mush, big brother contestant mush or indie-even-though-we're-on-Sony mush.
I'm sure you predicted all these alarmingly abusivley defensive comments, as I did. Too all those who have left such amusing tidbits, you have to ask yourself, if deep down you actually thought it was a good album, why are you working so hard to defend the tenner you spent on it? You'll all be much better people and music fans if you just admitted to youself that the bands you were once so excited about have pressed the big red button on the mixing desk labeled "RADIOIFY"
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