Kings of Leon “Only By The Night” Review

It is often difficult to gain a balanced perspective on an album after reading a single summary of the music. Bias can vary the review, as can personal taste, history and just about everything else that is unique to the person writing it. So in an effort to offer an expanded perspective on the music here are four reactions, four impressions, Four Takes on King of Leon’s Only By The Night.

As a perpetually-wronged hip hop head in the indie rock-dominated world of blogging, I’ve picked up the bad habit of assuming that any critically acclaimed band I’ve heard of, yet haven’t actually heard, is yet another generic mob of skinny hipsters singing either whiny relationship songs or cutesy indie-pop bullshit. I know, this isn’t fair and I should stop. And after listening to Only By The Night, I have a pretty good reason to; Kings of Leon are definitely not that kind of band. It’s so refreshing to hear a rock act with a real vocalist, someone who sounds like he actually means what he sings. Soul music and rock & roll are two branches of the same tree, after all, so it’s always surprised me that more bands don’t make this connection—rock has strayed into ineffectual mumbling devoid of fire or passion, and soul has become largely computerized and morphed into an unfortunate subgenre of hip hop and pop. While Kings of Leon aren’t exactly CCR (the lyrics, in particular, are a weak spot, wavering between generic and disturbing), a good southern rock band is a welcome departure these days. If you’re skeptical, check out the album’s opener, “Closer;” if that’s worth your time, listen to the rest—it’s a fairly solid album, front-to-back, with few peaks or valleys—definitely worth a listen. [Kyle "Guante" Myhre]

It’s not that the new Kings of Leon album is unlistenable, but the full-bodied, bearded Southern charm that this group once had has definitely left the building. Throughout Only by the Night lead singer Caleb Followill’s voice cracks painfully and regularly, further removing the band from its earlier, more powerful niche; a shift that became evident on the band’s 2007 release Because of the Times. All the new, slightly strange details reflect the uneven charm of a younger, less savvy band. The result is a freaky hybrid of mainstream adult-alternative and contemporary rock – too climbing, too much wailing emotion, too moody and atmospheric, removing them from the garage rock revival/southern rock category that they had been pretty much pegged under. The deeper, classic guitars have been replaced by spaced out riffs—leaving one to wonder where they truly belong now. [Review by guest contributor Jen Paulson]

Kings of Leon have always been a band that seems better on paper than in reality. Throughout their short career they’ve often felt light on substance and heavy on style, too easily boxed in by overtly descriptive genre labels. On their first two albums, they were fawned as “The Southern Strokes.” They have since graduated to stadium rock and the new moniker of the “Southern U2.” No matter what genre they are, they are struggling to replicate it. The first two singles, “Crawl” and “Sex on Fire,” are both mediocre songs with ridiculous lyrics that are so vacuous that I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cringe. Unfortunately for the band, the rest of the record offers little in ways of redeeming qualities. One of the lowlights is the song “17,” which is about… wait for it… a 17 year old girl. Hey buddy, you just said three songs ago that your “sex is on fire,” so maybe you should calm down about the underage skirt chasing and get to a doctor. One of the disappointments for me is that I liked Kings of Leon a lot after their debut, Youth and Young Manhood. Ultimately, they have become a caricature of an image that was created (probably by their label) and have for the last three albums put out increasingly lazy and strikingly bad music – which has culminated in this monumental failure of an album. [Josh Keller]

Not to say that it would be right to be expecting Only By The Night to sound like a string of “Molly’s Chambers” or “King Of the Rodeo”-sounding songs, but if you were – it may be helpful to brace yourself ahead of time. The album is far glossier than anything heard from the band previously, but is that such a shocking thing considering the millions of fans and nice haircuts they’ve acquired since blooming earlier this decade? OBTN teases grit with its lead single “Sex on Fire” and the fuzzed out “Crawl,” but the album cannot escape the easily-consumable shadow cast by the bulk of its songs. Not to put the lyrical quality ahead of my enjoyment of the album, and certainly not to mock the songwriter’s ability, (I am a fan of Death Magnetic, after all) but at times singer Caleb Followill’s words come off a bit generic. All the same he delivers the lyrics with a vocal sincerity that is often unheard of. Likewise, the album isn’t bad – it’s different, polished and serves as a logical next step for such a band – but it still leaves you longing for the type of music that elevated Kings of Leon to such great heights. [Chris DeLine]

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Also: Kings of Leon on Saturday Night Live