Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Album of the Month (March): Only by the Night by Kings of Leon

The Kings of Leon are a Nashville-based rock band made up of brothers Caleb (lead vocals & rhythm guitar), Nathan (drums), and Jared (bass) Followill, and their cousin Matthew on lead guitar, and Only by the Night is their breakout record, and one of the best collections of songs I've heard this decade.

Originally formed in 2000 in a town synonymous with country music and its Grand Ole Opry, the Kings of Leon (named after their Pentecostal preacher grandfather) eventually signed a major recording contract and issued a couple of EPs in 2003 (Holy Roller Novocaine and What I Saw), before launching their first full-length album, Youth and Young Manhood, that same year. With 2004's Aha Shake Heartbreak the band's early garage-punk rock sound--with a hint of reggae--barely shifted, but demonstrated growth from their esteemed debut. They eclipsed their potential with a third effort, 2007's Because of the Times, which, like their first two albums, was an applauded commercial success throughout Europe, but sizzled on home turf, despite killer tracks like "On Call" and "Charmer."

Fast forward to September 2008 and the U.S.-launch of Only by the Night, which finally garnered the Kings some real homegrown attention, in addition to a Grammy Award and their first No.1 rock hit. With Angelo Petraglia (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin) and Jacquire King (Modest Mouse, Tom Waits) at the helm, the Followill's penned all eleven tracks, including the radio-friendly, aptly-titled "Sex on Fire," which served as the lead single. The Kings are optimum with "Sex on Fire," but just as riveting on "Crawl," en route to be single as well, with a fuzzy bass strutting alongside Caleb's tangled anti-war serenade.

Caleb stretches out his rough voice as the record's most distinctive and enticing instrument, one that has the versatility to make one want to cry and dance at the same time, such as with "Revelry" and the album's second single "Use Somebody," which is a poignant distress call that lyricist Caleb credited to the city of Glasgow, Scotland for easing him through a bleak moment while on tour there. On the second half of Night the band changes gears slightly, and play around with a few unconventional ideas that only make the set more ambitious and charming, including "I Want You," "Be Somebody," and the enslaving "Notion."

At times Caleb's lead vocals sound like a cross between Jay Malinowski (of Bedouin Soundclash) and Jonny Lang, but he seems to find his own on most of the album's cuts, including "17," "Manhattan," and the haunting closer "Cold Desert," which exposes its singer probably more than anything else on the record. Despite all of the public comparisons--including U2 and an early Bruce Springsteen--Only by the Night is unambiguously the Kings of Leon, a band that has grown into its own by now. Only by the Night has captured the best of four provoked musicians that are in between their perpetuate arrival and their global dominance.

5 out of 5 stars
Emil Tiedemann

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