Kings of Leon "Can We Please Have Fun" (2024)

Can We Please Have Fun

release date: May 10, 2024

format: cd (2 cd) (Limited Edition)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,66]

producer: Kid Harpoon

label: LoveTap Records / Polydor - nationality: USA

Track highlights: Disc 1) 1. "Ballerina Radio" - 2. "Rainbow Ball" - 4. "Mustang" (live on the Tonight Show) - 5. "Actual Daydream" - 6. "Split Screen" - 9. "M Television"

Disc 2 - Live at Wrexham) 1. "Crawl" - 4. "On Call" - 5. "Find Me" - 6."Pyro" [ official audio concert ]

9th studio album by Kings of Leon following three years after When You See Yourself (Mar. 2021) is the band's first with British producer Kid Harpoon, who has previously worked with Harry Styles and especially has been welcomed as an acclaimed songwriter for his substantial work on Styles' album Harry's House (2022). The 2-disc limited edition has been titled in Welsh as Gawn Ni Hwyl Plîs, with reference to the live tracks stemming from a concert in Wrexham, Wales recorded at the Racecourse Ground, May 27 and 28, 2023.

My guess is that a big majority of Kings of Leon fans find the music by Harry Styles as more than a shortcut from that of the American band but I have come to understand this band as a unit who sees themselves in another light than I would intuitively. Working with producers like Angelo Petraglia & Jacquire King probably had many think of the band as a natural part of the alternative rock scene, but when turning to Markus Dravs on two consecutive albums, I think, it's quite clear that the band has other desires than 'just' representing pure rock, and Kid Harpoon (aka Thomas Edward Percy Hull) may perhaps be seen as a British-styled partner in crime to Dravs - narrowly speaking of course. But really, KoL is one of those bands - not far from The Killers - who stands with one foot heavy buried in dirty rock-mud and the other in sticky candy-flush. They started out as a psychedelic rock band and then experienced international fame when they jumped the pop-train, and ever since, they have kind of stood there with their feets in a limbo. Easy money and gigantic fame is hard to reject when your hobby becomes your job, and why on Earth would you? The disc 2 concert here shows the dilemma: concert goers scream and shout for their hits "Revelry", "On Call", "Find Me", and "Pyro", and they deliver. KoL is on their way to become the closest to an American version of U2, and they sail along on these streams 'cause that's all they can do. I would't be extremely surprised if they made a U-turn in the near future and made their Achtung Baby with some prominent producer-name and then spent the rest of their career jumping stepping stones to avoid the fogs of oblivion.

Meanwhile, Can We Please Have Fun is a solid and delightful collection of melodic uptempo pop / rock, which verifies how they have found their formula and also have refrained from past failures like Walls (2016) and Mechanical Bull (2012) that today appear as necessary attempts with sugary content as recipes that went too far off bulls eye.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone, The Independent 4 / 5, Clash 3,5 / 5, Mojo, NME 3 / 5 stars ]

2-disc Limited Edition

Kings of Leon "When You See Yourself" (2021)

When You See Yourself
release date: Mar. 5, 2021
format: digital
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,80]
producer: Markus Dravs
label: RCA Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "When You See Yourself, Are You Far Away" - 2. "The Bandit" (live) - 3. "100,000 People" (4 / 5) - 4. "Stormy Weather" - 5. "A Wave" (4 / 5) - 6. "Golden Restless Age" - 8. "Supermarket"

8th studio album from Kings of Leon following 4½ år after WALLS (Oct. 2016) is the band's second consecutive album to be made with producer Markus Dravs.

Stylewise, this new album doesn't come up with great many surprises. Kings of Leon is a band set on playing their own melodic mix of alt. rock and they basically keep quite strict to a formula they have distilled on since 2008 / 2010. And yet, this one comfortly manages to place itself in the better half of the band's repertoire, thus distancing itself elegantly from the poppier WALLS, which still holds up the band's so far only to reach the glorious national first spot on Billboard 200. Saleswise, it would have been expected that the band and its record company in support would go for a replication of success, but instead the band has produced, what to me sounds like, a gracious mix of its artistic peak with Come Around Sundown (2010) and Only by the Night (2008). By doing so, you could argue that Kings of Leon have found back on a proper course they sought out a decade ago but which instead took them on a sidetrack occupied by pop-ballads - something you'll find plenty of on their previous two studio albums from 2013 and 2016, respectively. Even with some retreatment to former heydays, When You See Yourself still makes a fine updated version of one of the finest US rock bands this century.

Highly recommended

[ allmusic.com, Clash 3,5 / 5, 👍NME 4 / 5 stars ]

Kings of Leon "WALLS" (2016)

WALLS
release date: Oct. 14, 2016
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,18]
producer: Markus Dravs
label: RCA Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Waste a Moment" - 4. "Find Me" (4 / 5) - 6. "Muchacho"

7th studio album by Kings of Leon following three years after Mechanical Bull (Sep. 2013) has been recorded with something as rare to this band as a new man in the producer seat. All of their previous six studio albums have been made with Angelo Petraglia exclusively or as co-producer.

Just as the band's style has evolved over the years, so has the band's soundscape, yet there have been fundamental characteristics to the band's music. One could then imagine slight changes to WALLS [written in caps as it stands for 'We Are Like Love Songs' as written in the inlay] to show the current direction / progress they find themselves in, but the album doesn't contribute with anything new, and pop / rock is still the first thing that pops to mind when faced with their version of alt. rock. Kings of Leon is (like, e.g. U2) quite a solid unit, still of the same three Followill brothers and their (Followill) cousin on guitar.

With Markus Dravs as producer, you would at least imagine that the band had some kind of desire to add new dimensions to their music or perhaps even change direction from their usual sound matrix. Some argue [downright] that WALLS should be seen as the band's change of direction with clear ties to their original style and that the compositions haven't been carved in the usual dense Kings of Leon-construct. That's just by no means what I'm hearing here. To my ears, this is the continued journey down the very same path - the same group of people dedicated in bridging the gap between American and British alt. rock and pop / rock, which you will hear tried out by bands like Snow Patrol, Keane, Travis, Foo Fighters, and the three who are musically closest to Kings of Leon: U2, Coldplay, and The Killers. From this four-leaf clover of bands with two stemming from each side of the Atlantic, I actually prefer listening to Kings of Leon. U2 has its very own weighty and significant spot in music history, which none of the others come close to.

WALLS was generally met by positive reviews, and the band secured its first and so far only number #1 on the US Billboard 200 - the position was short-lived, however, and in total sales figures the album has actually been the band's least selling album in the US where Only by the Night (2008) is the Kings of Leon album topping the sales figures - both nationally, in the UK, as well as worldwide.

"Waste a Moment" is a song, which begins as a clone of U2 and The Killers, but it's still fine. The critically acclaimed "Around the World" sounds like R.E.M. [in their later days] mixed with Talking Heads - and a bit too much of the latter. "Find Me" is again a song inspired by U2 in a mix with Keane, Snow Patrol and The Killers - but done quite convincingly, and it's the album's best track despite the obvious references. "Over" is more like The Killers and Snow Patrol on the same stage - and the result is not impressive. "Muchacho" is an almost Tindersticks or Editors-like song - not entirely bad and quite nicely done. "Conversation Piece" is... yeah, what do I know?! Beach Boys meets Carpenters, Fleetwood Mac and U2 [!]... - in any case, it's a curious scenario, but not really unique or with anything new on the horizon. "Eyes on You" is U2, Coldplay and The Killers jumping around the stage and getting everyone jumping up and down [big surprise!! Not really!]. And that's... it! Even the good songs here sound like some other band or just like something else, but after all, the album also contains musically fine compositions, although, the worst thing at this point in the band's career is the absence of originality. The music is nicely packaged - better than a Coldplay package or some of the others mentioned these days for that matter. "Stadium Arcadium" could have been an appropriate title for the album - as this collection of tracks will surely do well on big arenas and at huge festivals where people have had their share to drink - only, that title has been used.

I'm not quite sure, which of the band's most recent two albums I prefer - I do know, however, that neither of these are among the best by Kings of Leon.

Not recommended.

[ allmusic.com, NME 4 / 5, Rolling Stone, Q Magazine, 👍The Guardian 3 / 5 stars ]

Kings of Leon "Mechanical Bull" (2013)

Deluxe edition

Mechanical Bull
release date: Sep. 24, 2013
format: digital (Deluxe Edition)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,12]
producer: Angelo Petraglia
label: RCA Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Supersoaker" - 5. "Temple" - 6. "Wait for Me" - 9. "Tonight"

6th studio album by Kings of Leon is this time produced by Angelo Petraglia exclusively, and the album doesn't contain big surprises - in terms of style and sound. It appears as the continued process where the band seems to be contented in adding new songs to their well-known musical repertoire from time to time. Three years have passed since Come Around Sundown (Oct. 2010) and the band holds on to its popular sound.

Two singles were issued to promote the album: "Supersoaker" and "Wait for Me", both of which performed well, reaching positions such as a 9th & 10th spot on the national chart, and the album is already seen as one of the their more successful - at least in terms of sales figures. The album was generally met by positive reviews and also landed on top of the rock and alternative lists on the US Billboard charts, and the album was nominated a Grammy in the category Best Rock Album.

Accolades aside, I really don't think the album is an improvement over the band's predecessor, which I still think of as the band's best. Mechanical Bull features some of the same strong pop / rock tunes built around a spacious guitar sound and harmony choruses. What I miss most of all here are clear original songs, as several of the tracks sound a little too familiar - "Whoa, but isn't that an older song?", I often catch myself wondering during a listening, because songs simply sound too much like some of their older ones. What makes it worse, I think, is that some tracks sound like covers or at best: interpretations of U2 or Pearl Jam songs. For example, listen to "Beautiful War" while imagining Bono as lead vocalist... and then "Coming Back Again", which simply sounds like a lighter version of "The Fixer" by Pearl Jam.

Sadly, to my ears, it's not entirely unlike the story of The Killers. A band starts its career with a rather original rock sound and after good sales numbers the band turns more to the popular / mainstream side of pop / rock, which means... even better sales figures! You can hardly blame a band for being excited about gaining popularity.

Musically, I think it offers too little, and personally I only rate this above average, which means it's basically one of the band's worst albums. It's practically one of those albums that you can put on without bothering anyone. I mean, even my old mother wouldn't mind, and although I care a lot for her, I don't really see that as a positive thing.

Not recommended.

[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5, Q Magazine, 👍NME 3 / 5 stars ]

 

original cover

 

alt. cover

Kings of Leon "Come Around Sundown" (2010)

Come Around Sundown
release date: Oct. 19, 2010
format: 2 cd (Deluxe Edition)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,15]
producer: Angelo Petraglia & Jacquire King
label: RCA Records / Sony BMG - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "The End" - 2. "Radioactive" - 3. "Pyro" (4 / 5) - 4. "Mary" - 5. "The Face" - 6. "The Immortals" (4 / 5) - 7. "Back Down South" (5 / 5) - 8. "Beach Side" - 9. "No Money" - 10. "Pony Up" (4 / 5) - 11. "Birthday" - 13. "Pickup Truck"

5th studio album by Kings of Leon following two years after Only by the Night (Sep. 2008) is like that produced by Angelo Petraglia and Jacquire King. The 2-disc Deluxe Edition comes with a bonus disc containing three extras.

The album takes off on the same formula they have perfected making this the band's so far best album, in my mind. At first, I only heard the songs "The End" and "Radioactive" but soon my favourite was "Back Down South" and "Pony Up".

Sure, they don't change a lot. They make popular / chorus-based rock tunes, and they don't excel in new additions to stir up the compositional shape. The guitar is a dominating figure sent off on feedback and flanger effects making it sound like U2 had a finger on it, and yes without that Irish band Kings of Leon would probably have sounded differently, but to that 'origin' the Followills add something else, which may be identified as equal parts of American southern rock feel and originality.

What I really think makes this an even better album than the really fine Only by the Night is not as much the high number of great tracks as more the high level of the remaining songs. This album simply contains no fillers and it's the absolute best by Kings of Leon.

Highly recommended.

[ 👎allmusic.com, NME 2,5 / 5, Spin 3,5 / 5, 👉Rolling Stone, Q Magazine 4 / 5 stars ]

alternate cover

Kings of Leon "Only by the Night" (2008)

Only by the Night
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 ]

US cover

Kings of Leon "Because of the Times" (2007)

EU & Japan
cover

Because of the Times
release date: Apr. 2, 2007
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,78]
producer: Angelo Petraglia, Ethan Johns
label: RCA Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Knocked Up" - 2. "Charmer" - 3. "On Call" - 4. "McFearless" (4 / 5) - 6. "My Party" - 8. "Ragoo" (4 / 5) - 9. "Fans"

3rd full-length studio album by Kings of Leon is like the two previous albums once again with producer-duo Angelo Petraglia and Ethan Johns.
Unlike many artists, these guys make better and better music, instead of having trouble reaching their initial state, I think. I like this much better than the debut. The music has become tighter and more alt. rock-styled, and then the country rock style is almost gone by now. The track "Charmer" is a noise rock and punk rock song, which has a lot of Pixies ("Debaser") in it, but nevertheless the originality, it's still quite strong. I think "On Call" or "Ragoo" or maybe "Charmer" was the first song I ever heard with the band.

All in all the album is the band's clearly best album so far.

[ allmusic.com 3 / 5, The Guardian, Q Magazine, NME, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

US cover

Kings of Leon "Aha Shake Heartbreak" (2004)

EU cover

Aha Shake Heartbreak
release date: Nov. 1, 2004
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: Ethan Johns and Angelo Petraglia
label: Handmedown Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Slow Night, So Long" - 3. "Taper Jean Girl" - 6. "The Bucket" - 7. "Soft"

2nd studio album by Kings of Leon, once again produced by Ethan Johns and Angelo Petraglia (only credited as Angelo) shows a different approach. The band has moved away from what I recognised as 1960s (primarily British) blues rock insofar that the style has become more contemporary indie rock-oriented, which I find is an improvement making the album a better release. There's a tighter aggressiveness and controlled withheld energy - a complementary sound of hard and soft, which balances the compositions nicely. The album only lacks truly noteworthy songs, but it's obvious that they are great instrumentalists and as a whole I find this clearly bettering the debut.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5, NME, Q Magazine, Blender 4 / 5 stars ]

US cover

Kings of Leon "Youth & Young Manhood" (2003)

Youth & Young Manhood [debut]
release date: Jul. 22, 2003
format: cd (HMD27)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,06]
producer: Ethan Johns
label: Handmedown Records / RCA Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Red Morning Light" - 2. "Happy Alone" - 3. "Wasted Time"

Studio album debut by Kings of Leon released on Handmedown and RCA. The genre is indie rock and garage rock revival in a special southern rock style pointing towards early Rolling Stones mixed with AC/DC, which also takes it to the harder end of the style.

I think, I first heard of the band when the songs "Ragoo" and "On Call" from their third album Because of the Times (2007) got some airplay on the national radio station DR P3 back in 2007, but I wasn't really hooked on their music until a year later with the album Only by the Night (2008) and especially tracks like "Sex on Fire" and "Revelry", which were played extensively on nationwide radio. After acquiring these two albums, I then got their latest Come Around Sundown (2010), which really made me change my mind about this band, as imho was the band's best. This subsequently made me check out their first two albums, as I was also curious about how they had initiated their career.

I have nothing against the various styles they manage to incorporate into their music on their later albums, but this first one is really far from that - and also far from my taste. It shows the band's early garage rock revival mix (which is style I enjoy) with southern rock, country rock, and hard rock ['ouch'] , and I can only say that the mixture leaves me rather unimpressed. Yes, they prove themselves as skilled instrumentalists, but that's also the only thing that shines through here.

Not recommended.

[ allmusic.com, Blender 3 / 5, Q Magazine, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

Kings of Leon

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Kings of Leon is an American quartet founded in Nashville, Tennessee, 1999. The band consists of three brothers and their cousin Matthew - (Anthony) Caleb Followill (b. 1982) lead vocalist & rhythm guitarist, (Cameron) Matthew Followill (b. 1984) on lead guitar & backing vocals, (Michael) Jared Followill (b. 1986) on bass & backing vocals, and (Ivan) Nathan Followill (b. 1979) on drums, percussion & backing vocals.

The band's music was originally a mixture of southern rock, blues rock, and country rock mixed with a certain amount of psychedelic rock, but the music has changed along the way towards clearer pop / rock and an alt. rock style on albums from around 2008 and onwards. As Americans, KOL enjoy greater popularity in Europe than in the US, e.g. the debut album peaked at number #133 on the national albums chart, whereas it peaked at number #3 in the UK (selling more than four times as many albums here), and although the band's second album made a fine entry as number #55 in the US, but again the it landed as a number #3 in Britain. Both their 2008 and 2010 studio albums topped the charts in the UK, as they did in several other countries worldwide, and despite having by now experienced two album releases, which both peaked at number #2 in the US (in 2010 and 2013) - both of these albums topped the charts in Britain as they did in a number of other European countries as well as in Australia - so after six studio albums (as of 2015), the band has yet to achieve the same success in their home country.

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