album review: kings of leon, come around sundown

Kings of Leon is one of the biggest bands of our generation. I’ve been listening to them since 2005’s Aha Shake Heartbreak and always wanted to see them make it because they’re exactly what I like about indie music: sound musicianship that fits perfectly between classic rock gods and the strangest modern music. These guys are passionate, defiantly American, hard-working, the whole nine yards. And in 2008, the rest of the world finally noticed.

Ironically enough, living in London forced me to see the magnitude of KoL’s mainstream success. My flatmates were an eclectic mix of German, Swedish by way of Iraq, Japanese, British and Spanish, all with varying tastes in music and proficiencies in English. As soon as “Use Somebody” came on, though, that didn’t matter. We all knew the words and weren’t ashamed to give it our best karaoke efforts.

I saw KoL perform at Bonnaroo this past summer and was generally pleased. But towards the end of the set, I felt the weirdness that has resulted in the band becoming less hip, at least in America. You hear lead singer Caleb Folowhill’s Tennessee accent, realize you’re still in Tennessee, and just melt. Their proclamation and love of home and hard work is undeniably endearing, but it’s kind of condescending to the (majority of) people at the festival who came to see the other bands – Jay-Z, Stevie Wonder, or deadmau5 – and wanted to check out their favorite arena rockers in the meantime. Closer to the release of Come Around Sundown, though, his comments about his open hatred for hipsters and his brother Nathan’s comments about inadvertently hating Arcade Fire have led to a lot of people that used to be die-hard fans kind of giving up.

Now, as you know, I love the Arcade Fire. So I’ll have to look past that. And about hating hipsters – Jesus, I can’t tell you how many times a day I hear people vehemently denying that they are indeed hipsters, despite their unconditional love of The Kills and that PBR+Whiskey combo at your favorite bar in Brooklyn, Portland, Burlington or Austin. I can say that because I fall into one or more of those categories. The self-loathing is truly meta, so Caleb’s comment leaves me stunned.

All that aside though, today we’re talking about Kings of Leon’s fifth studio album, Come Around Sundown. I really liked the album. Yes, I’ll admit that a lot of the songs – “The End”, lead single “Radioactive”, “Pyro”, “No Money”, “Pony Up” “The Face” and “The Immortals” – succeed only because they perfectly adhere to the established, at times formulaic, Kings of Leon style. These songs each contain searing guitar riffs, awesome echo effects, Caleb’s tortured vocals, and the vague feeling of touching on something deeper than your average power ballad. The combination of “The Face”, with its explosion of sound near the end and single emphasized lyric of “ride out the wave” followed directly by “The Immortals”, also stressing the importance of “ride the wave”, especially reminded me of what they did with the end of “Use Somebody” and the beginning of “Manhattan” on Only By The Night.

Come Around Sundown gets interesting where it takes the Kings in different directions. “Mary” is powered by an early Beatles-inspired guitar riff to power the song, allows Caleb to use his voice differently and is altogether more bluesy we’re used to. I especially liked “Back Down South”, not only because it matches the hometown vibe I got from the band at Bonnaroo, but also because it’s a break from the intensity of the rest of the album and showcases the musicians’ talents in a completely different way. “Beach Side” is perhaps the biggest variation of their sound I hear on the album, reminiscent of Beach House. Also, despite the familiar thematic content of “Mi Amigo” – being down and out but happy and getting drunk – the song is decidedly different, including a horn section and almost reggae beat.

“Birthday” achieves the best mix of their old and new sound. You have the same searing bass lines and guitar riffs, echo effects, change of intensity, and trademark vocals that make us love Kings of Leon. But the song also has reflects true artistic growth: Kings of Leon isn’t trying so hard to knock it out of the park with this song so there is more control or craft. The story behind “Birthday”, a guy loving his girlfriend, despite her being drunk enough to make it seem like her birthday, is somehow more mature. Technically, the expert riffs are clean and the progression of sound is longer than usual. “Pickup Truck” follows suit and ends the album perfectly. It includes new piano and the same artistic control that exists on “Birthday” that leaves the listener aching for more Kings of Leon music, old or new.

Thematically, I wouldn’t say Come Around Sundown is anything earth-shattering. There’s still the KoL Southern American twangs of crawling home from the bar, a broken heart, passionate love, maneater sexy girlfriends and nuggets of wisdom that come from experiencing the pain and wonder of being alive. The most universal thing I can say about Come Around Sundown, especially apparent on “The Immortals” and “Back Down South”, is that it’s an album about aging.

Who hates the Arcade Fire now?