early on remind me a little bit of Cage the Elephant, and a lot of The War on Drugs, in a way that makes me think maybe I should go back and try to listen to tWoD again. Later started to remind me a lot of Her’s, for much the same reason, use of empty space. I normally don’t like so much empty space but Kings of Leon mighta sold me on it, I don’t know what about it was different or if there’s just been enough time or exposure to that sound for me by now, but I really liked their use of empty space, in a song (empty space not necessarily meaning not many sounds, but meaning not dense with new sounds). By the third album I felt they really started to hit their stride, I think I like every album from then on, would call them good albums. Might go back and relisten to the first two and see if I’d say that of them now that I have context and practice listening to the band. Solid high A-, and I can definitely see them growing on me in the future
RELISTEN1: the first two albums were iffy for me on my first listen, but coming back to them now I really like them a lot, they’re great. That alone is indicative of good things, that is evidence to me that Kings of Leon have successfully sold to me their sound, have taught me how to listen to them well.
And listening to everything again, I’ve decided I really really like being able to listen to them well. They’re consistent and likeable and I feel like their songs all feel individual and distinct without much work on my end. They’re consistent, but they still have standout songs that are really great. They do a lot of stuff that I might ordinarily be worried about becoming boring or repetitive or dull, but I think they do it really well, they have a good sense of how far is far enough, of managing tensions and space, it’s super nice. The vibes are good, the energy is good, the lyrics are good, the songwriting is good, it just feels good.
They have a particular kind of song and sound that in my first listen I compared to War on Drugs, and I don’t think that’s a perfect comparison but it’s not bad. It’s this song that’s kind of rolling and steady and kind of empty, it’s got some repeating motif, it’s got a very simple chord structure, broken up maybe with a solo somewhere. On paper, it’s a type of song that I think I might judge as being boring or slow, but it turns out I really like it. It hits me, y’know? It’s a type of song I’ve gotten better at listening to, and that’s been super rewarding. And I’ve come to feel that Kings of Leon are particularly good at it, they make those types of songs really really well.
I do think they peak pretty hard in their third album, Because of the Times. It’s not like they’re bad after that, they’re very consistent and I like every album, but I definitely like their earlier stuff more, and Because of the Times in particular is awesome. My first listen through, I said I felt it took them some time to “hit their stride”, that the later stuff was better. I remember Walls, their 7th album, being… maybe not my favorite, but being particularly good as an album. I still think it’s good, don’t get me wrong, but in this relisten I feel it’s not just not their best, it’s one of their weaker ones, and in fact it is the early albums I really love. Which goes to show, my first listen through they were just growing on me that quickly, so much so that I was experiencing listening to them in a qualitatively different way within less than a week of exposure. That doesn’t speak as well for those later albums for which it turns out I don’t necessarily like as much as I was hoping I would, but it speaks well for the band for sure.
I’m gonna call it an A. I was kinda crossing my fingers for an A+, but it’s just not there. I really love a lot of the songs, the vibes, the feeling of everything, that’s definitely true. But there’s too much that’s only very good, and not enough that penetrates, that I really feel feel, y’know? So, mid-high A checks out
tunafruitsandwitch 