Kings of Leon gone mild on 'Come Around Sundown'
Caleb Followill, Matthew Followill , Nathan Followill and Jared Followill of the Kings of Leon pose for photographs backstage at their concert on December 19, 2008 in London, England. Credit: Getty Images
Before they became the Grammy-winning torchbearers for American Rock, Kings of Leon were wholly unpredictable, wildly uneven and all sorts of fun.
Then came the anthemic, omnipresent one-two punch of "Sex on Fire" and "Use Somebody" and suddenly the Followill brothers - singer-guitarist Caleb, bassist Jared, drummer Nathan - and guitarist cousin Matthew Followill had something to lose.
And their new album, "Come Around Sundown" (RCA), sounds like a misguided attempt to simply hang on to as many of those casual chanters of "This sex is on fire!" as possible.
The odd, messy single "Radioactive" shows promise with its driving bass line and Caleb's mishmash of Important Rock Band vocal approaches. It's the most successful of the U2- influenced atmospheric songs ("The End," "The Face," "The Immortals") the band rolls out like Xeroxed copies, each generation getting slightly duller than the one before it.
Even when they return to their Southern-rock roots for the pretty, gospel-tinged, acoustic ache of "Back Down South," it sounds too clean-shaven to have come from them. Maybe it's a production issue from Angelo Petraglia and Jacquire King, who also helmed the band's breakthrough "Only by the Night," but the passion seems drained from the delivery and even the laughter sounds canned.
Only on the brilliant "Mary," with its Spector-ish wall-of-guitars and Stones strut, does the band sound like it was interested in trying something new. Surely the "Sex on Fire" guys have more daring left than that.
Kings of Leon: "Come Around Sundown"
GRADE: B-
BOTTOM LINE: Guys gone mild!
