Kings Of Leon
‘Only By The Night’ (Columbia)
Kings Of
‘Only By The Night’
(C
It’s hard to think that there was a point early in their career where Kings Of Leon’s authenticity was called into question. It was fine that The Strokes were a band who formed over a mutual love of Swiss bank accounts, but the Followill clan, with their parochial, preacher backstory and close links with co-producer Angelo Petraglia, were dealt with suspicion – were they, went the ridiculous accusation, the garage rock Milli Vanilli? Their first two albums were evidence enough to prove their brilliance was all their own, but it was last year’s ‘Because Of The Times’ that saw them join the lineage of great American bands who make great American albums. And, make no mistake, ‘Only By The Night’ is a great American album, its scope as vast as the stretched, sun-drenched panoramas of No Country For Old Men. If ‘Because…’ started to chip away at the imbalance between their UK and US success, then their fourth album bulldozes it – the static creep of opener ‘Closer’ starts at the reverb-engulfing finishing line where ‘Knocked Up’ left off, ‘Crawl’’s fuzzed-out retro stomp sounds like Radiohead’s ‘National Anthem’ being Lynyrd Skynyrdised and the jagged, staccato thrum of ‘Sex On Fire’ sees Caleb’s lacerating howl shift from cigarette-lunged croak to a resonant, emotional holler. ‘Use Somebody’, meanwhile, is their best stab yet at stadium-filling balladry, the sort of big-chorused MOR that might – hopefully – make Snow Patrol redundant.
If there’s one criticism, it’s that ‘Only By The Night’ is too one-paced – the rolling, octopus-limbed thump of ‘Be Somebody’ provides a welcome injection of tempo – but it’s an album that’ll cement Kings Of Leon’s place at the top table of rock. Bono, Stipe, Yorke et al – budge up, eh?
