Music Evaluation: Kings of Leon electrify with new album that nods to the previous, ‘Can We Please Have Enjoyable’
Kings of Leon pose an existential query to listeners on the primary single from their new album: Are you a mustang or are you a kitty? Effectively, turning that round: Which Kings of Leon are we getting now? The purring arena-rockers or an edgy, untamed stallion?
Judging from the 12 tracks on “Can We Please Have Enjoyable,” it is time to pull out a saddle. There is a uncooked unpredictability to the band’s ninth album, a welcome return to the Kings’ early sawdust-and-spilled-beer days. Sure, we are able to positively have enjoyable right here.
Brothers Caleb, Jared and Nathan Followill, and cousin Matthew Followill have put out the brand new album 21 years after their debut, “Youth & Younger Manhood” and it is extra like their first recordings and simply their greatest in years.
A punky, storage really feel flows by lots of the tracks, with the bass and drums cranking and Caleb Followill’s voice cracking on tracks like “Hesitation Era” and “Nothing to Do.” “Precise Daydream” has a country-infused indie vibe, and first single “Mustang” is angular and strutting, whereas “Do not Cease the Bleeding” is a sultry enviornment banger and “Nowhere to Run” makes your coronary heart pump quicker.
However it’s “Break up Display” that’s the album’s brightest monitor, a gradual burn constructed round a guitar noodle and with enigmatic lyrics that nod to a mid-life disaster and parental angst (“hyperventilation,” “set it down earlier than your break it” and “massive plan. Let’s cancel”). It is hypnotic, and simply one of many band’s greatest, the right mixture of minimalist combined with coiled energy.
The album is produced by Child Harpoon, who has sharpened albums by Harry Types, Florence + The Machine and Miley Cyrus. It is the primary time Harpoon has labored with the Kings. The combo has one way or the other lanced the inflated, mighty Kings and introduced them nearer to the jagged sound they began with.
Lyric-wise, intercourse on fireplace has been changed by crying infants on airplanes and hair extensions. However it is a band that even in midlife is embracing their internal mustangs, not kitties. “If I might be so daring on a regular basis,” go the lyrics to “Break up Display” — maybe a prayer for them, and for us.
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
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