Kings of Leon: Only By The Night Album Review

The Brothers Followill’s Brilliant Follow Up to Because of the Times

Dec 28, 2008

As 2008 draws to a close, it's time to review some of the musical highlights of the year, with none more impressive than the mighty Kings of Leon's epic fourth album.

It’s been quite a year for the Kings. Not content with a festival-stealing headline performance at the legendary Glastonbury, and a sell-out UK tour including a concert at London's O2 arena, the Followill brothers (along with cousin Matthew) delivered an emphatic response to Rolling Stone’s question (suggested after their third album triumph with Because of the Times): How good can the Kings of Leon get?

Born of the band’s fire and brimstone preacher roots, Only By The Night draws religious metaphors around sublime vocals, killer guitars and a vast expanse of emotional mileage. It verges on the sublime, not just in the ‘pretty darn good’ sense, but something more profound and awe-inspiring. Like contemplating love, life and death from a cliff edge while a raging storm batters the landscape.

Lovesick Vampires and Anguished Vocals

The slightly spaced out and eerie ‘Closer’ kicks off the album. Supposedly about a ‘lovesick vampire’ (Kings of Leon official website), it’s desolate, dark and spooky, with an usual guitar line, created by lots of reverb and guitarist Matthew literally screaming into his guitar pick up. It’s entrancing, original and sets the bar pretty high for the rest of the album.

‘Crawl’ has crunching power guitar layers driving the track with a hypnotic and hugely satisfying rhythm. The melodies on the whole album are understated but strong and delivered to perfection by Caleb’s piercing, heartfelt and at times anguished vocal, a contentious point for some critics, but one that still continues to defy attempts at description. ‘Crawl’ is no exception. Only the second track in and band conveys the feel and the authority that some of the great 60s and 70s rock bands only have now, thirty years on.

Followill Arena Pleasers, ‘Sex on Fire’ and ‘Use Somebody’

‘Sex on Fire’, the album’s lead single, races into its roared chorus after a more indie pop intro, the difference marked by a Nathan’s throwing in of a more cymbal heavy drum line. Caleb alternately wails and growls his way through this heavyweight arena pleaser. But perhaps a more notable achievement is the fact that the band pull off a track called ‘Sex on Fire’ with straight faces.

The now famous chorus to ‘Use Somebody’ is already finding its way into soundtrack moments on TV shows when they need something to show an emotive pride-filled moment, normally involving some youngster succeeding against all the odds. Yet knowing that it’s going to get tired pretty quickly does nothing to dampen the brilliance of the track. But then again, ask again in a year…

Skipping ahead, ‘Revelry’ enjoys an unusual percussive line and a melody like a lazy bluesy afternoon. It breaks up a short mid-album lull, where some slightly weaker and dubious tracks make an appearance.

Desolate Landscapes, ‘Cold Desert’

‘Manhattan’, though a competent Kings track, is mediocre by this album’s standards. ’17’ is a little bit iffier, morally (remember those accusations of misogyny?) and melodically, while ‘Notion’ repays some of this musical debt, lyrically it is, well, a bit rubbish, mostly consisting of ‘don’t knock it, don’t knock it’ despite the fact it was supposedly written to definitively answer a less than positive critic. ‘I Want You’ strays into that iffy territory again but it’s a welcome change of pace and the chorus is catchy to the point of annoyance.

‘Cold Desert’ takes some getting used to. Get past the plaintively wailed woe-is-me lyrics and find the vast expanse of desolate and beautiful landscape that lies at the heart of this track. ‘I’m too young to feel this old’ Caleb screams like a drunk guy who’s just fallen out of the local watering hole and is feeling decidedly sorry for himself. Just when you think he’s passed out and finished, he gets back up for one last finale. It’s bizarrely tragic, and all the more poignant for that.

Tennessee Indie Rock Royalty

The Tennessee indie-rock royalty have once more risen to the occasion with a stonking album that, for all its minor faults, reverberates with the kind of originality and weight that most of their peers can only shamefacedly aspire to.

The band have come a long way from their previous, also five-syllabled, albums: Youth and Young Manhood, Aha Shake Heartbreak and Because of the Times. Only By The Night sees the Kings becoming comfortable with a closer, more intimate sound, but also creating the huge arena tracks that their bigger status now understandably demands. Along the way, they conquer sublime new territories. They also seem to have escaped the third/fourth album difficulties that often plague bands at this stage in their careers.

A huge highlight of 2008, a heralding greater things to come in 2009 and beyond, Only By The Night is one of the must-have records of 2008.