release date: Sep. 22, 2008
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: Angelo Petraglia & Jacquire King
label RCA Records / Sony BMG - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Closer" (4 / 5) - 3. "Sex on Fire" - 4. "Use Somebody" (4 / 5) - 5. "Manhattan" (5 / 5) - 6. "Revelry" (4 / 5) - 7. "17" - 8. "Notion" - 9. "I Want You"
4th studio album by Kings of Leon following 1½ years after the fine Because of the Times (Apr. 2007). In the producer seat Jacquire King has replaced Ethan Johns co-producing with Angelo Petraglia. Again, the band has elaborated on its style and moulded an improvement on their previous studio release. I think, this was the album that made them huge in Europe. The song "Sex on Fire" was an immediate hit on the national radio stations, and you could hardly go anywhere without being confronted with that track. It's truly a strong album, though I kind of tired of its hit status. I also enjoyed "Revelry" from this one, and these two songs basically made me go out and get the album.
Nowadays, I think "Manhattan" is the most remarkable and best track of the entire album. It's a song that starts out slow and soft and then builds up with Caleb's strong and convincing vocal accompanied by Matthew's distorted surf rock guitar. It's like musical fireworks, and before you know it, the song fades, too soon. This type of compositional blue-print is something the band has proven to really understand.
All in all, I find Only by the Night yet another improvement from a band who seems to have a bright future ahead of them thinking of how they've been able to continuously make better and better albums.
Highly recommended.
[ 🙉allmusic.com, 🙈Rolling Stone 3 / 5, NME 3,5 / 5, Q Magazine, 👍Spin 4 /5 stars ]
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