Gus-
This record is like that girl you date for a extended period of time but you can never really tell her you love her or commit to her. You really like her, but she just isn't doing it entirely for you. You like hanging out with her, but you could never really settle down with her.
These are my words to a friend describing my feeling of the most recent release by the Followill Family Band (aka. Kings of Leon). KoL have a new record coming out on October 19th, and thanks to my friend Justin(aka. Gus), I was able to get an advance copy of it. The record is titled Come Around Sundown, and it is a very fitting title. After listening to it exclusively since receiving it in my email, I can say that I really like it, but I don't love it.
I wish I could say I love it, but I haven't loved a record of theirs since Aha Shake Heartbreak (2005)*. This is a really good album. I feel it is one of those records that you and your friends listen to while sitting out near a bon fire just drinking beer and shooting the shit. There isn't a song that really has that whiskey or tequila drinking feel to it like you will find on Youth and Young Manhood (2003) or Aha Shake. It is a rather mello record, which is not a bad thing. The highlights for me are "Radioactive", "No Money", and "Birthday", and as cheesy as it may be I really love "Back Down South". All in all it is a solid record.
I just hope some day soon they make a record like the Stones' Exile on Main Street. I want them to go back in some home studio in Tennessee or Kentucky and make a record again. I want them to bring Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash) or T-Bone Burnett (Crazy Heart soundtrack, Elvis Costello) in to produce and help them find that original sound again. I will still buy this record and continue to buy their records just as I did with Oasis. I relate the two bands in a way. I see them making two amazing records in the beginning then a handful of misses or not so great records and then coming back with a few awesome records again. I just hope that KoL don't break up in a stupid brotherly battle.
After the success the guys have had over the past two records with filled arenas, massive music festivals, and a pair of Grammy's, I expect them to ride this wave for a while. I just hope the millions of new fans are going back to listen to Youth... and Aha Shake. The previous two records (Because of the Times, Only By the Night) were good but they don't match up to the dirty-gritty-sweatiness that their first two records provided.
I guess I am a little selfish when it comes to the Kings. Having seen them play at the seriously missed Odeon in Cleveland for $20 and a the Foundry in Dayton for $15, I have a feeling of disgust now that I have to pay $50+ to see them play at an arena. Nostalgia is a bitch.
I would go into a more in depth breakdown of each song, but that isn't me. You can go to the bands website and listen to the record in its entirity, and form your own opinion. If you have never listened to a KoL record or song, you may not listen to the radio (they have been everywhere from the radio to primetime television shows), but this record could be a good place to start. If I were you though, I would go back to the beginning.
Overall grade: B
*nostalgia moment: Aha Shake Heartbreak came out in the spring of 2005 in the U.S. At that time I was in Italy studying architecture with Kent State. I knew the record was coming out, but I had no idea how to get my hands on it in Italy. I really wanted it. So I went to every record store in Florence the day I learned the record was being released in Europe. The chain stores didn't have it. The few independent record stores did not have it either. I was losing hope. Then I took a chance at a shady record store under the train station. Nothing was labeled or in any real order, but after two hours of digging through their new releases box, I found it. One single copy of the minimal white cover with the blooming orchid. I think I whooped outloud causing hundreds of Italians and gypsies to stare. I took it to the sales clerk to learn that it would become the most expensive CD I had ever purchased. It was an import. It wasn't the actual European release. It was 38 euros, so with the exchange rate it came out to just over $50. Needless to say I listened to it a lot for the remainder of my time in Italy and Europe. I introduced several of my classmates to the Kings which led to a handful of us seeing the band the following fall in Cleveland at the now defunct Odeon.
