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April
Kings of Leon - Because of the TimesPentecostal skinny-jeaned indie pioneers, Kings of Leon, open their newest delivery with a 7-minute long epic, Knocked Up, their longest track to date. A brave move? Not really. Nothing about the track necessitated the length, and all in all it’s essentially any track from the KOL mould, stretched. What’s more significant is why they’d choose to do it. And after a few listens, it becomes clear. It eases the listener into this new album very gently, and more importantly it eases one into the new direction the Followill family have taken. A track of length automatically gives the impression of a track of intent. Serious and solemn beyond their image, this band no longer wants to be seen alongside the Strokes, the Hives, and so many others. To put it plainly, to an extent, it seems like they’re sick of being the Lynyrd Skynyrd of Garage Rock.
Lyrically? Nothing’s changed, and the Gospels of Caleb, Nathan, Jared and Matthew all remain intact. The same characters inhabit their world - the dusty streets that lead onto dark alleys concealing women of ill repute, tricksters and gamblers, drunken barroom brawlers, all going about their business in a shadowy world just out of view of a strict moral upper class. And, as always, Caleb sounds like he’s attempting to swallow the words at the same time as singing them.
Taking the album standing alone, it would seem like yet another Kings Of Leon collection of tracks. Listened to alongside Youth And Young Manhood and Aha Shake Heartbreak however, the evolution is clear. Enhanced structures, developed guitar lines, and a more cohesive rhythm section show us that life on the road has progressed for these boys from the backstage groupies in nameless towns of the first album, to the endless white lines of the second, and has led them to the mature determination of the third.
Tracks like My Party and McFearless could have never sat easily on either of their previous albums. Milk, on Aha Shake Heartbreak, is almost a blueprint for the much more unified and emotional True Love Way that we’ve been shown here. Trunk is a laid-back starlit night in the Mojave Desert sitting on the bonnet of a rusting Cadillac with only a bottle of tequila and the radio for company, while first single On Call could easily be a lonely night, taking time to wander around a busy city and flowing lights of traffic searching for the one you love.
Album finale Arizona sums up the maturity of the band, and makes it clear to anyone familiar with their work how far these lanky-haired Tennessinians have come. The road trip has so far brought them to a clear and distinct album - emotive, pure, and raw. If they continue to imbue their music with as much passion, care and craft as they have to date, their next destination is quite simply wherever they want it to be.
Abderrahmane