The Kings Of Nothing
Uninspired and uninteresting litters Only By The Night.
Kings of Leon
Only By The Night
Released on Sep 23, 2008
Kings of Leon is a quartet of good ol’ boys from Tennessee. They play somewhat of a mix between garage rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd-style Southern rock, and “blues.” The band is made up of three brothers and their first cousin. Only by the Night is their fourth album and came out on RCA Records on Tuesday, September 23.
If an album review is to reflect the content of the work, then the above paragraph is probably the most apropos few sentences that can be said about this rock n roll family band. Straightforward, unimpressive, uninspiring and uninteresting, Only by the Night is a work that caters to the lowest common denominator, an equation that can be reduced to a one to one ratio, cliché to desperation.
Steeped in self-pity and cheeseball antics, Only by the Night fails to go in any direction at all other than straightforward. Where Kings of Leon albums before took risks, kept you on your toes, it seems like the majority of the songs on this record were crafted by amalgamating components of arena rock songs and desperately, direly extracting whatever sort of “indie” credibility they might have possessed in the past.
“Sex on Fire,” the first single, is as literal as it gets, without an ounce of deeper meaning to save the coitus-crazed vocals, “The dark of the alley/The breaking of day/The head while I’m driving/I’m driving.” This particular song comes off as vapid and uninteresting with Caleb Followill’s vocals straining to that Southern-style grunge breaking during a chorus more of moaning than words. Incidentally, it incites me to set my ears aflame rather than any sort pyro-like procreation.
The album soldiers on with tracks like “Manhattan” and “Be Somebody” that feature the least catchy choruses I’ve ever heard laced on top of high-end production and simplistic musicianship that is ripe for the Budweiser-rock scene. The band strives for some sort of worldliness on “Manhattan,” seemingly claiming they will take over the world while in New York with a punchy, dancey rhythm. Unfortunately, the song sounds more like a plugged-in version of O.A.R., hippie dance circle and all, than anything else. Manhattan, NY? Seems more like Akron, OH.
The album doesn’t stop at failing at its most optimistic points. Where most any known band can thrive, the self-deprecating ballad, Kings of Leon still manages to go too far into that sad, trite area that most of us left behind in 8th grade. The beginning of “Revelry” steeps Caleb’s vocals in the most obvious of chemical addictions (“So I drink and I smoke and I ask if you’re ever around/even though it was me who drove us right in the ground”) while either a drum machine or the saddest excuse for an effect on perfectly good percussion pulls your attention from the bad to the worse.
The most jarring aspect of the album, after a few listens, is how much I can’t tell things apart. The entire work is laced with the same noises, the same effects. Other than separating the “sad” songs from the “happy,” I can’t make out a difference from one end to the next. Kings of Leon operates in two speeds and manages to belt out Nickelback-esque overwrenching through either one. Perhaps the tell-all moment of the album comes during “Notion” when Caleb’s wanna-be Springsteen gargle chants the repeated line, “Don’t knock it if you’ve been here before.”
Kings, we’ve been here before. We left a long time ago. Sorry. On the plus side, you can probably catch their next hit single at your local Aldi supermarket.
High Point
The title of the final track, “Crawl,” not only signals the end of 42 horrendous minutes, but also is an illustration of the only mode of transportation you’ll be able to accomplish if you listened through the entire thing.
Low Point
Just as you think it’s over, “Cold Desert” fades out just as quickly to fade back in and treat you to another 30 seconds of pain.
Posted by Mark Steffen on Sep 29, 2008 @ 7:00 am
