Kings of Leon Album Review – Has their Sundown Come Around?

Southern rockers, Kings of Leon release their 5th full-length studio album, Come Around Sundown this week amid disgruntled murmurs from self-proclaimed ‘original’ fans, unsure of where the band’s bracing raw energy went. It begs the question, is a great band defined by their ability to perforate the cling-filmed expectations of fans by pushing beyond the expected 3rd/4th LP plateau?

One recurring line you hear a lot of bands churn out in interviews around about this career juncture goes something like:

“It came to a point where we just started making music for us - music we liked. And if our fans liked it too, then that was just a bonus.”

It’s a maturation curtailed somewhat in the self-indulgence of commercial success, but it’s one that makes sense.  As fans, we have to cling to the hope that bands are broadening their own influences and continuing to experiment in producing different sounds, as we are in trawling blogs & vintage record stores to seek them out.
  
Come Around Sundown is certainly a unique addition to King of Leon’s body of work and regardless of whether it will get a good burn on your Mp3 player or not, it remains musically unambitious. I fear the precedent for whatever buzz this album generates, was set when the Grammy Award hit the shelf and KOL went from a hardcore band to a household brand in 2009. As a whole, Come Around Sundown is even more placid than 2008’s Only By The Night which marked the first big steps the boys took away from the fuzz and deep into the studio (and church).




The first single off the LP, ’Radioactive’ has an opening riff that hooks you in with its potential to explode, until an offensively wet rhythm guitar barely rises to back it (Slash is that you? And are you on a Valium bender?). Caleb’s vocals also seem more tidied than ever: the grit & screech that used to whip-crack the edge of phrases in classics like ’King of the Rodeo’, a distant memory (as is the lyric “All out of fags and I just can’t wait”). Interestingly, the path to clean production the band seem to have skewed onto must have been one of their own volition; songwriter/producer Angelo Petraglia having worked with the boys since they rolled out of Sunday school to sign with RCA Records at the start of the decade.
  
‘No Money’ would have to be one of the album’s standouts and one of the few tracks where Nathan is drumming to a sweat-inducing tempo. Yet there is something sadly lacking in the mix: when backing vocal harmonies wash over the chorus, they suck the weight out of the major riffs and however much you try to feel the reverb in your chest, it just never quite moves you like you know it should (live - maybe be a different story). In tracks like ‘Back Down South’ the Followill boys have bust well and truly through the saloon doors to produce an unashamed Country Western ditty - it’s definitely tumbleweed territory – and I don’t even know if they grow in the region they are singing about.


   
It’s as if Come Around Sundown is living in the chorus of ‘McFearless’ (off Because of the times (2007)- an album I felt stitched the band’s stage energy & studio sound impeccably, despite Pitchfork’s harrowing review). The chorus is epic with its open major chords that stretch and soar to the lyrics “Where I stand, it’s my role, it’s my soul”. But the power of this track lies in the chorus running off the back of the rampant percussion, messy riffs and scratchy-tailed vocals of the verses: the ones that tore us up from the start on Youth & Young Manhood (2003). Where Kings of Leon once made music like a dirty whiskey shot: burning down your throat, toxifying your blood and grating at your muscles till they jerk to life; they now fail to pack a punch.

Undeniably, the battle between “true original fans” and “bandwagon jumpers”, meshed in with this quandary will continue to rattle on, and if it’s a bi-product of people feeling passionate about music they’ve sought out and supported in dingy back-street bars, then it’s not entirely unwarranted. Kings of Leon themselves admitted to NME they struggle with ‘Only By the Night’ fans in the crowd not recognising their older material (they probably wouldn’t like it to be honest) – if you compare their slower numbers ‘Trani’ (2003 – check the epic live video at T in the Park ’04 below) with Grammy Award winning ‘Use Somebody’ (2008), the music speaks to polar opposite audiences.




So is the tirade of backlash from “indie-snobs” unjustified or is just that they feel they’ve been left with a sound they can’t relate to anymore, that’s tangled up in overpriced merchandise & clichéd cinematography (Check out the video for Radioactive if you don’t know what I mean).

As a music-lover, chart positions are meaningless belt-notches and bands can revel or negate them as they see fit:  it’s when commercial success and the lifestyle it affords becomes the endgame that true creativity seems to fade. Hell, Paul McCartney shifts between his countless estates and you don’t hear anyone whinging about that (Heather Mills excluded). 

In a recent interview with Triple J’s Tom & Alex, Caleb said,

 “Hopefully the people that listened to it online [the leaked version], even if they think its shit they’ll still go out and buy it, that’s what I hope for.”  (He goes on to discuss affording a beach house after this album hits it *cringe*)

If this kind of sentiment is entrenched in the bands new “mainstream” arrangements, then it’s no wonder the indie kids have their skin-tight jeans in a twist!

For better or worse, with the release of Come Around Sundown Kings of Leon have clearly said so long to the slow nights and turned to greet the rock-arena with open arms – and as fans, we can take it, leave it, or sit back and rant their misgivings to the empty blogisphere (snap).

I’m not sure about you, but it all seems too soon for Kings of Leon to kick the bucket into mainstream obscurity; but as Caleb once sang:
    
“Too young to die, but old is the grave”

You can stream Come Around Sundown in full until the 18th on the Triple J website.

Let us know what you think!
   

20 Hottest Rockstars of this Decade: 2000-2010 (AKA the Noughties)

After stumbling upon blog entitled The Official Iggy Pop Shirtless Aging Timeline (pure gold) it got me to thinking what new age rockers of this decade (and ones that don’t resemble an old handbag) have left their sweat on our stages, their breath on our mics and their voices reverb-ing inside our skulls for so long after the pub/festival gates have shut that we can’t sleep for days; often waking up half-strangled in earphones with their latest offering on repeat.

This year’s Splendour in the Grass festival saw over 20,000 camp-ready punters explode over the rolling hills of Woodfordia like a tie-dyed tarpaulin in an effort to witness 3 days of some of the best musical talent scene-ing right now. And it may just have been the best 3 days of some of our lives.

With that in mind I will start this list off with one of the festival’s ultimate highlights…

(The rest of the list follows in no particular order)

1. Julian Casablancas: The Strokes

Arguably dubbed the best rock voice of this generation, Julian Casablancas is the chief songwriter for The Strokes who formed back in 1998; their first album This Is It (2001) named by NME as their album of the decade. Massive chops to nab that title! The king-hit quality of their live performances beat any studio recording as Julian toys with quirky one-liners and anecdotes (“Flo-Mo, just Flow-in the Mo” – sorry Splendour “in” joke) before man-handling the mic for another round. Julian also released a solo album Phrases for the Young just last year to mixed reviews: it must be difficult to take a new direction with such an identifiable, sexually charged tone of voice. In his own words “Take it or Leave It” I guess!

Fave quote: “With a hundred ways to do a dozen things, why not try it all?”

Rock Cred Lyric: 29 different attributes, And only 7 that you like, uh oh, 20 ways to see the world, oh oh, Or 20 ways to start a fight – You Only Live Once

2. The Followill Boys: Kings of Leon (sorry couldn’t separate them)

The Tennessee trio of brothers: Anthony aka Caleb (Lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Ivan (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Michael (bass, backing vocals); along with their cousin Cameron (Lead guitar, backing vocals) form the Southern-rock, testosterone-charged unit Kings of Leon. Since they are bound by blood I felt it unfair to separate the 4, who in recently years transformed their raw, twang-tailed version of rock into a more generic power-ballad production with the release of Only By the Night (2008). Despite this evolution finally achieving the boys chart success, a few people (myself included) were a bit disheartened by there new overly-produced sound (and maybe the fact that I saw pre-pubescent-boppers in school uniform screaming that their ‘sex was on fire’). Their new album Come Around Sundown is due out October. Let’s hope it packs a sweaty punch of raw riffs - right to the kisser!

Fave quote: "The other night there was someone on the front row and we had played a new song, and then we played 'Trani' which is off our first album. I saw the girl look at another girl and say, 'Is this another new song?' So it's like a lot of them don't know the difference."

Rock Cred Lyric: I cock and load my mergers when you question my mood, ‘Cause you ain’t got no taste. You talking 'bout my baby, I could flip him upside down and I could mop his place. – My Party

3. Win Butler & Régine Chassagne: Arcade Fire

Husband & wife duo Win & Régine, head up the famed Montreal Septet, Arcade Fire, who recently struck gold with their latest release “The Suburbs” which reached #1 on the US Billboard charts – almost unheard of where ‘quality’ music is concerned! Both Win & Regine have a background in Jazz: from their heritage or from being honed in their own bedrooms and both are multi-instrumentalists, some of which include: Mandolin, Violin, Guitars, Keys, Piano, Bass, Synth, xylophone, recorders, vocals (obviously) and the hurdy gurdy (strange version of a fiddle)! Arcade Fire’s unique song structure and chaotic rhythms can rattle you like turbulence or ghost right through you; intoxicating and undeniable. So much talent packed into the pants of these two characters it’s no wonder Win often wears suspenders.

Fave quote: “Some bands are just manipulating people to buy music. That’s how 90 percent of the record industry works! It’s basically the same as selling a fucking toaster or a cruise package.”

Rock Cred Lyric: Do you know where I was at your age? Any idea where I was at your age? I was working downtown for the minimum wage, And I'm not gonna let you just throw it all away! I'm through being cute, I'm through being nice. O tell me, Lord, am I the Antichrist?! - Antichrist Television Blues

4. Kevin Drew: Broken Social Scene & Kevin Drew

Kevin Drew is the chief architect behind the multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist anarchic collective that is Broken Social Scene (and possibly one of the best bands to ever cram up a stage). Drew and the member-changing outfit hail from Toronto in Canada and emerged as part of this new wave of Canadian sound sometimes dubbed “baroque pop” (music-journo speak I know, but it gives you an idea of the antique-usque arrangements of guitars, strings, horns, woodwind instruments and how the group meshes all the talents of it’s sometimes 10+ vagrant members). Drew even started his own record label Arts & Crafts which boasts artists like Phoenix, Feist (who he dated at one stage) The Dears, The Apostle of Hustle & more. For such a pint-sized shaggy-haired package, Drew can belt out one hell of a tune – it can be raw as f**k or serene wash of subtle – either way it is bound to bring you to your knees.

Fave quote: “We've always been a band that sings about exactly what's inside of us and exactly what's happening outside as well. Like, if we're screaming, let's have something to scream about.”

Rock Cred Lyric: When I was a kid, you fucked me in the ass, but I took my pen to my paper, and I passed you. You know I love the shit, 'Cause the shit tastes so good, I've got pastures waiting in the woods. - It’s All Gonna Break

5. Marcus Mumford: Mumford & Sons

Marcus heads up the alt-folk-rock troop Mumford & Sons. He plays everything from guitar to the drums to the Mandolin as well as lending his bellowing British-accented vocals to front-wall the house of his ‘sons’ harmonies. Mumford exploded onto the Australian music scene with potentially even more force than they did on their own turf with debut album Sign No More: “Little Lion Man” voted as the #1 song in Triple J’s 2009 Hottest 100. They are definitely one of the most phenomenal live acts to surface in recent times touting 4-way A Capella’s - and if you’re lucky enough - you might even get to throw down to a hoe-down worthy banjo solo. The best thing about Marcus is that his humble segways between songs show he is genuinely honoured to perform for fans. Bail me up some of that goodness!

Fave quote: “We used a 100-year old harmonium [to record the album] that I love. Although it's at my parents house, because I can't fit it in my flat. We borrowed a bunch on vintage guitars off people we knew [too].”

Rock Cred Lyric: But you rip it from my hands, and you swear it's all gone. And you rip out all I have, Just to say that you've won. Well now you've won. – I gave you all

6. Karen O: Yeah Yeah Yeah’s

Karen O is the Geisha from hell, and one that can unleash a fire on a microphone to boot. She is of course front women to the New York trio, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs; an indie fusion of rock, dance, art, punk and screaming the f**king house down. Karen’s well known for her churlish tongue and crazy stage antics: when she is up there she totally owns it. It’s as if she is the human embodiment of confetti in a rocket launcher strapped to the gullet of a T-Rex. The band has released 3 LP’s: Fever to Tell, Show Your Bones and the most recentIt’s Blitz: taking a less brutal approach to song writing with the latter (my personal fave actually), but its one that will still make you scream their name all 3 times (preferably from a bed with Karen O in it).

Fave quote: “There’s no detachment when I’m up there. I don’t allow myself the distance. I’m fully putting myself out there for the people and for the sake of trying to lure them into the experience. I think that’s why it takes so much out of me. And I think that’s why I resent it to some degree. I feel like I’m picking up the slack for a whole generation of non-believers.”

Rock Cred Lyric: You can keep your black tongue, Well I found at the mortuary, you know I'm gonna want some want some – Black Tongue

7. James Murphy: LCD Soundsystem

He’s the big guy with the big voice and too much creative and technical skill to poke a drum stick at: writer, musician, producer and DFA Records co-founder; James Murphy. James is probably most well known for heading up the dance-post-punk (although their sound is completely unique) people of LCD Soundsystem. Their latest release “This Is Happening” was dubbed poignantly by Triple J as a “free-wheelin' masterpiece” – and it is. Fans were obviously nervous to see if Murphy could produce anything on par with the hectic magic of Sound of Silver (2007) which earned itself a Grammy nomination for best for best Electronic/Dance Album, but deliver he did. Hard to comprehend why but James is highly self-critical. He told Pitchfork recently “It's kinda soul-crushing in a way to listen to 'Perfect Day' and say, 'I'm gonna go write a song like that,' and it'll be fucking horrible by comparison.” Dude - what are you on about! All My friends, Someone Great and the epic This is Happening opener Dance Yrself Clean with a bass drop that will make you split your pants, Murphy – Daft Punk should be inviting you to play at their house!

Fave quote: "I make dance music, or disco... And dance music isn't really about anything. I can tell if it's working: 'Are people dancing? Yes.' Then I've achieved my goal.”

Rock Cred Lyric: I've heard lies that could curdle your heartstrings (Drunk girls). A couple truths, maybe burn out your eyes (Drunk boys). Drunk boys leave their irons in the fireplace (Drunk girls) 'Cause drunk girls give them too many tries – Drunk Girls

8. Yannis Philippakis: Foals

The UK university town, Oxford has always been a breeding ground for artistic talent; so it was only a matter of time until indie five-piece Foals spawned. Yannis Philippakis (whose name coincidentally means 'little friend of horses’) fronts the band who with their latest release Total Life Forever have seen their cult following inflate to epic proportions. Yannis spruiks these high-pitched, angular vocal lines that can flick from ghostly to acidic on one phrase. Layer this over the top of the staccato-ed guitar riff style Foals pioneered (less severe on TLF than on Antidotes), and you’ll have to GPS the location of your own mind to find it. Yannis is said to write music that is ‘sonically tidy’ and it shows. You can lose yourself in the bands sound-scapes of dissonant chords but at the same time you can tell that’s exactly where they want you to be (in 100m, turn left). For a self-professed grouch and ‘boring homebody’ Yannis (who “boringly” leapt into the crowd after their recent Glastonbury set) and the boys have an on-stage energy that will pulsate to your core; it must be that Western feeling.

Fave quote: "There's an old school rock feeling at Reading and Leeds that you don't get anywhere else, people really releasing negative energy. If we had our way, there wouldn't be any barrier between the band and the crowd."

Rock Cred Lyric: I've been to the darkest place I know. You my dear shouldn't fear what lies below, it's just bones. Now you go softly soft, Picking out better bones than your own. Oh I see you creep in the dark. – What Remains

9. Kele Okereke: Bloc Party

Openly poetic and overwhelmingly intense; Kele is the co-founder and front man of British band Bloc Party who tsunami-ed onto the scene earlier this decade, breaking down music genre barriers in their wake. I think everyone can remember the first time they heard 2005’s Silent Alarm, the hypnotic crescendo-ing drum beats of “Like Eating Glass” blew my mind, moved my feet and with one crack-hit of Kele’s piercing croon: addicted my being. Three albums later: still hooked. Kele’s also just released his first solo album The Boxer while Bloc Party are on hiatus which is definitely more of a retro-synth, dance-pop piece of production for the artist. He tours Australia solo for Parklife this year and it will be interesting to see if his stage presence resonates without Russell, Gordon & Matt in the half-light behind. (I think it might)

Fave quote: “When British music magazines say we're overly serious or po-faced, I think it's actually an indication that the mindset of people right now is to be completely apolitical and not be concerned about what's happening in the world. To try and draw attention to this, you're labelled as a political party person or something and I think that's sad.”

Rock Cred Lyric: You said you were going to conquer new frontiers, Go stick your bloody head in the jaws of the beast. We promised the world, we'd tame it, what were we hoping for? – Pioneers

10. Matt Bellamy: Muse

Hailing from Teignmouth, in Devon, Bellamy was always going to bring some kind of meat to the musical table (however strange the mash-up), and he did. Not only did Matt’s progressive metal vocal stylings cut through the wash of mediocrity back in the late 90’s, but the incorporation of rock-piano into Muse’s repertoire must have made many a kid out there re-think there mum’s constant pestering to practice their scales. And if that wasn’t enough, the Muse front-man is now dating Kate Hudson, who came to support him at their recent Coachella performance (you know you’ve made it when you’re bagged a movie star). Muse’s latest release (to the screwed-up faces of some of their earlier fans) The Resistance (2009) peaked at No. 3 of the US charts and they premiered it earlier this year at The Big Day Out.

Fave quote: “We were all off our faces on mushrooms when we recorded Plug In Baby... There was this big field next to the recording studio filled with them. So we ate them all. I don't know what we were doing, but we all ended up naked in a Jacuzzi and I went deaf in one ear from falling asleep in the sauna...”

Rock Cred Lyric: You'll make us wanna die, I'd cut your name in my heart. We'll destroy this world for you, I know you want me to. Feel your pain – Space Dementia

11. Thomas Mars: Phoenix
12. Liam Howlett: Prodigy
13. Tom Meighan: Kasabian
14. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden: MGMT
15. Beth Ditto: The Gossip
16. Wayne Coyne: The Flaming Lips
17. Thom Yorke: Radiohead & Thom Yorke
18. Jake Shears and Ana Matronic: Scissor Sisters
19. Dougy Mandagi: The Temper Trap
20. Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam: MIA

Wild Card: Kevin Parker – Tame Impala
Wild Card: Lawrence Greenwood - Whitley
Wild Card: Jonathan Boulet – Parades & Jonathan Boulet

Please add comments or any you think I have missed!!
Peace out. x

Kings of Leon Shun Spots on Glee and Ugly Betty

Bassist Jared Followill (of the Followill brothers three who make up Kings of Leon) told NME in their latest issue that the band “no-dealed” offers to guest star on Ugly Betty and more recently to appear/have their music featured (destroyed) on musical high-school spoof, Glee.

Despite the boys refusal in the name of integrity, I’m sure there will be lots of original Kings of Leon fans that would subscribe to the notion that just being asked to appear one of the most mainstream pop TV series ever to bubbled brightly onto our sets, is an indication that the “selling out” may have already occurred.

There last album “Only by the Night” was exhausted internationally by mainstream radio to the point where the idea of sex producing and kind of heat brought a little bit of vomit to the back of our mouths – and that is not a healthy outcome. The album was a lot more overly produced than its predecessors “Aha Shake, Heartbreak” and “Because of the Times” (my personal fave) which toyed more with different tempos and had a raw quality about it which is what made the boys Kings or rock in the first place. It will be interesting to see how their new album “Come Around Sundown” due out this October makes waves.

Having said that, “selling out” is such an ambiguous concept these days. It is such a struggle for bands to spike their way into our airwaves and when they finally do and achieve commercial success, we muffle them out and complain how ‘music isn’t music anymore - it’s just the sound track to a good marketing proposal’. At least Kings of Leon have drawn a line in the sand, even if it should have been drawn a fair way back down the track.

What do you guys think? Did the Kings lose their crowns a long time ago or have they still got it?

Kings of Leon Concert Halted by Poo

Not everyone is a fan of Kings of Leon – especially a feisty flock of pigeons – who managed to halt the legendary band’s live performance at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in St. Louis recently after only three songs!

The mass of birds hovelled up in the rafters of the arena managed to synchronise their faecal tirade on the band, with bassist Jared Followill a particular target.

"I'm surprised they stayed on for as many songs as they did," Andy Mendelsohn of Vector Management (the band’s management company) said in the statement. "Jared was hit several times during the first two songs. On the third song, when he was hit in the cheek and some of it landed near his mouth, they couldn't take it any longer.

"It's not only disgusting — it's a toxic health hazard," Mendelsohn said. "They really tried to hang in there. We want to apologize to our fans in St. Louis and will be back as soon as we can." (Star Tribune)

Apart from the obvious hilarity that these alternative rock gods were ‘pooed’ off stage, it must have been pretty disappointing for the St Louis fans who weathered heavy storms and empty pockets just to see them.

Also, considering support acts The Postelles and The Stills made it through their sets (granted they were shrapnel-ed with shit as they walked into the wings) do you think it was pretty lame for the Leon boys to bail?

I just hope they opened with “Velvet Snow”…