Despite press peppered with adjectives like "deep-fried," influences in the rock realm of Lynyrd Skynyrd and a back story as American as apple pie (the three Followill brothers crossed the country with their preacher father, spread the Holy Word and listened to classic rock until forming a band with their cousin), Kings of Leon never struck me as a "Southern" band. Sure, hints of the blues and deep-Southern "rawk" pop up here and there on the previous two albums, but overall, Kings of Leon were squarely a modern rock band with a sound that runs the gamut between decades and sub-genres, much like everyone else these days. And with their most recent release, "Because of the Times," even that bit of stylistic twang, which led so many to put such great faith in the potential of this band, has been rubbed out in favor of slick production and one-note songwriting.
While I hesitate to call "Because of the Times" a great album, I admire KoL for trying to evolve their sound out of the garage. Maybe I'm just a little resentful of a band that so flashily wears its old-fashioned Americana on its sleeve, because the album is at times -- and at face value -- fairly enjoyable. A lot of their songs are actually quite expansive, bringing to mind a big blue country sky, and overall a lot mellower than the growling rock of 2005's "Aha Shake Heartbreak." Their song "On Call" is practically a lullabye -- singer-guitarist Caleb croons in front of the soft interplay of Nathan's drumming and Matthew's lead guitar in the background.
One trade-off, of course, is the lack of catchy hooks that endeared KoL to so many fans in the first place. I for one prefer that rougher sound in my straight-up rock -- the type that KoL purports to be -- and not this newer, yet more generic and way over-thought (which some mistake for "cerebral"), type of sound.
It seems like every other young rock band is releasing their "serious album" these days (hi Killers!). KoL signal this right off the bat with the seven-minute "Knocked Up," about a young couple who is having a baby, parents be damned. At first it seems a great song, one perhaps a bit too reminiscent of the Boss, but at least it's well done -- for the first three minutes. Length does not an epic make, despite what Rolling Stone Magazine seems to think, because the last four minutes of the song are just droning jams of material that was well-covered in the first half. The song doesn't develop at all, it just becomes repetitive --which turns into, unfortunately, a theme throughout the album. Now, I could see the point of repeated lines in some sort of 12-bar blues allusion, but such a sense of musical history makes no appearance in the harmony, so KoL seem more like they have nothing new to say. I have to confess, after three albums of songs about life touring on the road (because fame is oh so hard) and dangerous women, I'm beginning to believe that this latter statement is true.
KoL have taken up the stylistic trappings of arena rock and matured their sound a bit, but their content still needs to catch up. Their lyrics have always been more atmospheric than truly compelling, even fully supported by Caleb's distinct voice. But with the better sound quality and production of "Because of the Times," their lyrical emptiness is more obvious and a lot more grating. Many critics have likened this new album to U2 or Springsteen, but KoL still has a ton of growing up to do before they approach that level of worldliness and nuance in their songwriting. As the band's website explains, "This time around, the band told [producers] Johns and Petraglia that they wanted to take a more proactive role in the recording process. 'We wanted to go for the sounds that we were hearing in our heads,' Nathan explains, 'because your record represents you as a band. But when you're young, as we were when we made our first two albums, we didn't know that.'" I'm pretty sure I knew an album is a good barometer of a band's talent when I was five.
With this apparently new free reign over their own sound, the Followills were like little kids in a candy shop in terms of production and finding a "new" sound. A lot of the songs sound jarringly like the post-punk-funk that is so popular with the kids these days. Songs like "Charmer" sound very reminiscent of Bloc Party and their ilk. Many more songs ring of the Pixies or Blur -- "Fans" is like an acoustic "Debaser." KoL is definitely more popular in the UK than here, so maybe this is their way of cozying up to their biggest fans -- the Allmans across the pond. Regardless of motive, however, the Followills bring nothing new to their latest ventures in sound. A fact which, given all the hype and the success of "Aha," is very disappointing indeed.
In fact, all their posturing brings to mind that scene in "Blues Brothers" where John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and their merry band attempt to pose as country band The Good Ol' Boys and calm a rowdy bar with their rendition of the theme from "Rawhide." Kings of Leon is just as authentic -- and a lot less entertaining.
