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Then there’s the soaring ballad, full of moody instrumentation and simmering angst. In form and effect, it’s a lot like “Waste a Moment,” from 2016’s WALLS, or “Supersoaker” from 2013’s Mechanical Bull. There’s the bombastic one with big guitar riffs and a propulsive beat, represented here by “The Bandit.” Taut guitar gallops over a clattering rhythm while Caleb Followill sings with gruff urgency andas the song builds to a resonating chorus. It’s most apparent in the band’s singles, which have lately followed one of three models. Yet big is not the same as memorable, and Kings of Leon’s albums have become increasingly bland as they have come to rely more and more heavily on formula. As their audience has grown, the group’s music has become more grandiose on songs built around big hooks seemingly designed to reach the last row of seats. That’s what elevated them from the scrum of scruffy indie bands in the early 2000s to chart-topping superstars who have sold north of 20 million albums worldwide. The three Followill brothers and their cousin are certainly capable of big gestures. As Kings of Leon have grown into an arena-sized band, the foursome has crossed back and forth over that line and their new album, When You See Yourself, is no exception. How else do you reach that sea of people crowding into the arena, or amphitheater, or whatever? The trouble with big gestures, though, is how easily they can come to feel hollow instead. Arena rock is by necessity built on big gestures. Sign up for the 10 to Hear newsletter here. (Pitchfork earns a commission from purchases made through affiliate links on our site.)Ĭatch up every Saturday with 10 of our best-reviewed albums of the week. In truth, their current iteration doesn’t sound all that thrilled about it, either. It’s hard to imagine the wild-maned early incarnation of Kings of Leon even wanting to listen to a band like this, let alone play in one. When You See Yourself, on the other hand, packs in all the carnality of a weekend run to The Container Store. Is this what anybody wants to hear from this band? While Kings of Leons’ early albums left plenty to nitpick-namely the repulsive 1970s sexual politics-they had a guy’s-night-out energy that could be infectious if you bought into a particular fantasy notion of masculinity. On the cosmically forlorn “Time in Disguise,” one of the record’s many tracks pitched at the tempo of mid-period Coldplay album cut, he can’t shake his own obsolescence: “Close your eyes and what do you see?/Is it a man or masked machine?” Even more dejected is the country-hued “Supermarket,” where Followill promises “I’m going nowhere, if you’ve got the time.” Followill is 39, but from these songs, you’d think he’s workshopping one of Rick Rubin’s end-of-life albums. On “Fairytale,” Followill’s unloved yowl is reduced to a red wine stain trying to stand out against a busy carpet.įollowill has never been an easily decipherable vocalist to begin with, but the lyrics that are audible place him inside a dreary mid-life rut. The mix saves the worst of its wrath for Caleb Followill, whose voice it continually finds new and cruel ways to bury. But in practice, his production competes with these songs more than it complements them, eclipsing them like skyscrapers oblivious to any lakefront view they may be blocking.
As a For Your Consideration Grammy submission, his work is impeccable-almost every track sounds like an expensive technical feat. Lending to that unwelcome sense of déjà vu is returning WALLS producer Markus Dravs, a Brian Eno disciple who’s engineered records for Coldplay and Arcade Fire. They’ve now spent most of their career as the Southern post- Antics Interpol, a band desperately clinging to a sound that’s stopped working, trying to write songs that soar but capable only of ones that wallow. Forget about the Southern Strokes or the Southern U2. The most, if not only novel thing about this album is that it is the first album in history available as an NFT, a cryptographic way to sell art and music online.
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It’s the only kind of album Kings of Leon know how to make anymore, which is a minor variation of the last one, and the one before that. This band has been old beyond their years for so long, maybe it’s time they skewed young for once.īut When You See Yourself isn’t that kind of album. It’s the most jubilant the band has sounded in years, and while it’s not their normal lane, it suggests there might be a path forward in shamelessly pilfering from the perkier, neon-painted corners of contemporary alternative. Surprisingly light on its toes, opener “When You See Yourself, Are You Far Away” is bright with pinging polyrhythms. The group’s eighth album, When You See Yourself, briefly teases what a winning Kings of Leon album could sound like in 2021.
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