In the end, it’s the songs that combine the best of both worlds, the band’s rocky past and its calmer present, that push the album to its best. But then there are also the quieter moments that come with a tender intimacy in tracks like ‘100,000 People’, ‘Claire and Eddie’ and the eery ‘Supermarket’ – the latter tracing back to a darker period in frontman Caleb’s drunken past with lyrics like “ I’ll never be whole again until I get clean”. On the one hand, we have songs like ‘The Bandit’ and ‘Echoing’ that are packed with dirty guitars and croaky vocals so catchy that you can almost hear the crowd chanting the chorus at future festival fields. Now, over a year later, and the world in a slightly better place, the record leans on the band’s roots, while still adding a few new strokes to Kings of Leon’s flourishing musical canvas.
Recorded at their Nashville base with Arcade Fire and Florence and the Machine producer Markus Dravs, the album was ready to see the light of day at the end of 2019, but, well, we all know what happened then. From the very beginning, it is clear that the rock outfit, comprising three brothers and a cousin – Caleb Followill on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Jared Followill on bass, Nathan Followill on drums and Matthew Followill on lead guitar – hasn’t lost its rowdy rock moments on the way to its eight full-length adventure, but the quartet might have just put them on a leash and added a small taste of melancholy to their grand ballads. The songs on ‘When You See Yourself’ are long (half of them easily reach the five-minute mark), the lyrics are bedded either in a past long gone or a future to be celebrated, and while heavenly vocals lead the way, heavy guitar strikes, thrilling bass lines and hitting drum beats whirl around in a storm of sounds and voices. But now the group has returned with a not so typical rock album that is ready to crush stereotypes and lead its listeners into a world of self-reflection and tell the tale of a band that has had as many ups as it has had downs. Once known as the band the Strokes would have become had they been based in the South of the US, the talented gentlemen have left that part of their story behind a long time ago – as you do, once you win your fourth Grammy. Kings of Leon are a textbook example of the typical rock band – all male, all white, birthed straight out of Nashville, and at home where the crowds scream their names at the top of their lungs.
Although that doesn’t mean they aren’t up for yet another surprise punch. And with an extensive catalogue of 20 years of experience in the business, the group is far from having to reinvent itself or having to prove why the members have become legends amongst gods in rock’s heaven. ‘WALLS’, the band’s so far biggest commercial success saw the quartet land a hit at the right time, at the right place.
It’s been over four long years since a new Kings of Leon album has grazed everyone’s ears and hearts.
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