Rough Draft: Kings of Leon Review
Praise the Lord and pass the tequila! Here's a rough draft of my Kings of Leon review. Their new album and my story both come out next Tuesday.
Meet the Followill boys: three Southern sons of a Pentecostal preacher. As impressionable kids, they used to pack up with pop and go off saving souls in the family sedan. As restless men, they opted for sin over salvation, calling up guitarist cousin Matthew Followill and starting a Scripture-thwarting band.
Since their 2003 debut, and after opening for U2 and Pearl Jam, the Kings of Leon have been hailed as the future of rock ’n’ roll, and hoo boy has this Southern Gothic quartet embraced both the musical and hedonistic requirements of said designation. First album Youth and Young Manhood was all about danger, debauchery and breaking the old man’s holy heart. Imagine William Faulkner as a member of KISS, and you’ll get the wild ’n’ wooly picture.
2005 followup Aha Shake Heartbreak — which was more like Led Zeppelin covers The Devil Went Down to Georgia — was their “hangover” album, all parts incredulous headaches and foggy memories of mayhem.
On new disc Because of the Times, the Followill imagine trying to go straight, raising a family, getting good with God. Not so much quitting the bottle as tucking it away for special occasions. That’s easier said than done, of course, and the result is a hypnotically pounding album with sharp turns, sweeping vistas, seductive femmes fatales and late-night pleas to the Almighty.
On the first two albums, lead singer and songwriter Caleb Followill slurred most of his lyrics, a Nashville ne’er-do-well speaking in strange tongues. It was mesmerizing, spooky even. On the group’s third try, he’s still howling and crying, but he’s also enunciating more of his lyrics, as if the theme of sobriety is as literal as it is figuarative. The band still wanders down lots of of abstract, prog-rocky paths, but that said, this is still their most accessible album yet.
“I don’t care what nobody says we’re gonna have a baby”: That’s the first line of opening song Knocked Up, a seven-minute fever dream about a young punk trying to outrun his past and settle down. The song is as smooth as a new highway — and then as jarring on a head-on collision. Over steady guitar strums and a faraway ghostly holler, Caleb tries to sound cool, doing his best croaky Tom Petty impression. But as the song slow-burns to a crescendo, there’s a scary edge in his voice, too, as if being good is too much to bear. When Matthew, Jared and Nathan barge in with an angry scrum of guitar, bass and drum — all coated in thin layers of rural grit — you just know the song’s protagonist is about to do some very bad things........
(AND SO ON AND ON. Check out Tuesday's paper for the rest...)
Sean Daly is the pop music critic for the St. Petersburg Times. His CD collection -- from Journey to Dylan, Prince to U2, Public Enemy to Stan Getz -- is much bigger and better than yours.
Loved the teaser, Daly! Looking forward to reading your article. I've had a chance to download the album, but didn't want to before it came out. I've read a lot of reviews about it and can't wait to pick it up with Fountains of Wayne(have you heard that one yet?) Can't say enough about this band--loved 'em right away and I believe they are going to be the future of rock music!
Posted by: full of chaps | March 30, 2007 at 09:49 AM
Not the best news about Fountains of Wayne: "Traffic and Weather" is by far their weakest album yet. There are a few good tunes, but all in all a disappointment. I have lofty expectations for these guys, and this is lacking.
Posted by: Sean Daly | March 30, 2007 at 11:03 AM