Kings of Leon: yet another formerly great band.
Back in the summer of 2003, I was at University and spending the summer travelling around Europe in the way that most students do: with a backpack of completely inappropriate clothes on my back, train pass in hand and cheap plastic flip flops on my feet. For the duration of the trip, all I could think about was getting back to my student flat in Aberdeen, getting royally shit-faced and buying Kings of Leon’s debut album ‘Youth and Young Manhood’.
For months afterwards, I did everything with ‘Youth and Young Manhood’ in the background; washing up with the marigolds on, singing out of tune in the shower, burning my macaroni cheese, and dancing appallingly badly in my local hall of shame Exodus. The follow-up ‘Aha Shake Heartbreak’ was a slow burner at first, but quickly became much loved and much listened to. For me, the downhill slide began with ‘Because of the Times’… and the less said about ‘Only By The Night’, the better.
I read somewhere that ‘Only By The Night’ came about after the Kings were booked for the headline slot at Glastonbury. After the good news sank in, they apparently decided that they’d need some new material to play at the gig and so, six weeks later, they’d come up with ‘Only By The Night’. Perhaps this is just a made-up rumour. Whatever the story behind the creation of the album, by the time I saw the cover, my heart was sinking. By the time I bought the album and listened to it, my heart was in my shoes. The fact that the single ‘Sex on Fire’ has become the shout along anthem of choice for annoying drunk people in clubs has done nothing for my sanity. The album was quickly passed on to someone who offered to give it a better home than I was willing to.
I have to admit that the prospect of another Kings of Leon album being in the offing hadn’t even entered my consciousness, but it turns out that there is one on the way, slated for an October 18th release here in the UK. ‘Come Around Sundown’ continues the band’s habit of using five syllables in their album titles (‘…’ is, I think, the only response to that) and is apparently a return to a sound similar to that of ‘Youth and Young Manhood’. This is potentially a very good thing. However, the band are retaining Angelo Petraglia and Jacquire King as producers. The continued lack of Ethan Johns is potentially a very bad thing.
Now to the video for the first single from the album. Dear God, it is quite simply awful. What the hell is going on? The glowing hues, the playing children, Caleb standing about in a barn… make it stop. As for the four white boys feeding the minorities good ol’ American food and standing about looking smug in photo lineups, I just have to ask: is this video an acknowledgement of their ‘humble’ background, or just sheer nonsense? It all looks, and is starting to sound, just a little bit like Coldplay.
Radioactivity has the potential to create mutations. In light of this new video, I have to wonder if Kings of Leon are on the cusp of a change themselves. With ‘Radioactive’, do the boys hint at a return to their old sound and former glory, or have they been so changed by fame that they can’t see that the sun does not in fact shine out of their arses?
It’s over to lead singer Caleb (whose sporting of an extreme side parting and moustache in no way puts me at ease) to round things off with his immortal words uttered at the Reading Festival last year. Standing on stage at the end of summer, at at time when Kings of Leon where enjoying the most lucrative of success, he faced the crowd and greeted them thus:
“We know you’re sick of Kings of Leon, so for all those who don’t give a fuck about us, I understand. But we’ve worked fucking hard to get here. So anyone that has anything to say to us, fuck you. We’re the goddamn Kings of Leon.”
Thanks, Caleb. Goodnight.
You're the "goddamn Kings of Leon"? You look like dicks.
