Hey IT’S OK to be excited about Kings of Leon again... phew. When ‘Sex on Fire’ happened, the Nashville foursome stormed the charts and unintentionally set up camp on every Yates DJ’s playlist and on every sorry Oceana dance floor - forever.
It was of popular opinion that Kings of Leon had royally fucked things up and anyone who thought differently, or dared hum along to ‘Use Somebody’ playing on the radio for the 56th time that day, was a moron. This was not the band we’d once known, this was a stadium filling, number-one-churning, washed-out-machine that even they seemed supremely embarrassed and irritated to be a part of.
Phrases like ‘middle of the road’, ‘sold out’ and ‘commercial’ littered their critical reviews. Only By The Night was a good album on the whole, but then Come Around Sundown ‘happened’ and it seemed that we had lost them forever. KoL fans waited patiently, feeling jaded, desperately missing the band they had once loved and hoping for a better day.
Well that day has come. It only takes a couple of seconds into lead single ‘Supersoaker’ to realise that everything is going to be all right. Mechanical Bull is their sixth album, and expertly cherry-picks from the finest from their vast body of work, now spanning over a decade.
‘Rock City’ echoes of the rockabilly, Aha Shake Heartbreak days. Think whiskey, long hair and the gleaming red dusky sunsets of Tennessee. Actually, apply this imagery to the whole record and you’ll be set. ‘Wait For Me’ is special, a ballad but not so achingly ‘epic’ as ‘Use Somebody’, it’s feels like almost accidental melancholia, emotion bleeding out of their guitars.
‘Comeback Story’ (ironic?) feels like home, starting with a simple riff repeated, much like ‘Knocked Up’ from Because of the Times. It’s not different and hey, it’s not groundbreaking, it hasn’t been decorated with bells and whistles but it’s what we all wanted, a promise that Kings of Leon have found themselves once more, and are more than happy to be back.
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