The fifth full-length album by Kings of Leon, Come Around Sundown, was released yesterday, and so finger on the steam will help mark the occasion by dedicating this week's Hump Day Hitslist to those southern rabble-rousers. Keeping in line with the five song parameter of the Hitslist, you will find one song from each of the Kings of Leon's five albums in the mini-player below; though you won't find any of their biggest hits, because all of the songs selected are non-singles from the albums. Think of them instead, as hidden gems.
1. "Joe's Head": From Youth & Young Manhood, the debut album that had many critics perking up their ears and re-tooling their top ten lists for 2003, this song is emblematic of the Kings of Leon's early style: from the nearly inaudible southern snark of Caleb Followill's vocals to the always chugging forward rhythm section, "Joe's Head" feels like a bar room brawl. The song appears to be an ode to the mythic folk song "Hey Joe" popularized by Jimi Hendrix. In Hendrix's famous tale, Joe has just killed his lover after he's "caught her messin' around with another man," while the Joe narrated by the Kings of Leon kills 'em both:
"Well he said Fred, I just killed a man/ Caught him laying with my girlfriend/ Now they're both dead/ People can be so cold when they're dead."
2. "Soft": A gloriously fun jam from the sophomore effort Aha Shake Heartbreak that catapulted the Kings to fame, "Soft" sounds too irreverent to be about anything negative; yet, when you stop and take heed of the lyrics you can't help but smirk devilishly. After the first chorus you have to brace yourself and wonder if Followill just said what you thought he said, before he chimes in with "behind the fringe of a whiskey high", and then you know it's all about drunken impotence:
"I'm passed out in your garden/ I'm in I can't get off, so soft/ I'd park myself in your body/ I'd come all over your party, but I'm soft"
3. "Ragoo": On their third outing, Because of the Times, Kings of Leon took a sonic departure from their southern rock roots. We know now this album was a study en route to the more U2-inspired anthemic rock of the follow-up smash Only By The Night, but at the time it left the hardcore fans wondering where the band was headed. Regardless of the changes, betwixt the glacial pop and punk-inspired experiments happening on this record were some infectiously catchy tunes that portrayed the Kings' signature booty-shaking rhythm, and "Ragoo" is the finest example among them.
4. "Cold Desert": It is nigh impossible to reconcile the lead-off single from the Kings' first record, "Molly's Chambers", with the played-to-death chart topper "Sex on Fire" that took the Kings to new heights of stardom. Both are excellent songs in their own right, but their differences demonstrate how dramatically the Kings of Leon had shed the snakeskin of their past; one in which their childhoods were spent driving through the southern United States in a purple 1988 Oldsmobile, decamping for a week or two wherever their pastor father Leon was scheduled to preach. While the definitive sonic departure of Only By The Night had the potential to alienate existing fans, it was the visceral emotional content, often lacking on previous albums, of songs like "Cold Desert" that would bring a whole new audience to Kings of Leon. Caleb says in a home video that he was very drunk when he recorded the song, and a lot of the lyrics were improvised; stating in retrospect that he would never have sung "Jesus don't love me" if he had been sober. Perhaps it was the truth rising to the surface of this record that made it so engaging, and eventually, such a major commercial success.
5. "Mi Amigo": The latest album is just days old, and so "Mi Amigo" could very well become a single in the near future. For now, "Radioactive" is the only song gracing the airwaves. A much more patient and calming record than anything they've done in the past, Come Around Sundown is packaged in a misty photograph of palm leaves swimming in a tequila sunrise; "Mi Amigo" is a boozy, beachy tune that perfectly fits that aesthetic.
I know that some people having been saying this since Only By The Light, but I disagreed; until now:
ReplyDeleteKings of Leon are officially standing still.
Some might say regressing, even. Whereas before their lyrics were not deep or particularly meaningful, there was at least something fun in the chauvinism and pubescent fantasies. And it was accompanied by some raucous and interesting tunes that were unlike anything else going at the time. Last album, they lost that unique sound for a stadium-filling style we've heard all too often, but at least the lyrics got better. This newest album, Come Around Sundown, seems to do neither: it sticks with that formulaic stadium sound, but it lacks in lyrical depth of any kind.
ReplyDeleteThat said, there is still some catchy stuff on there. So I am really rating them in relation to themselves, not in relation to the other guitar rock being produced out there.
(And Tim, you haven't commented on my Collective Soul reference from grade school in my earlier post, I am surprised!)
You kind of said it all ... I used to play that riff for hours.
ReplyDelete