Kings of Leon can't live up to U2's hype

By Patrick Daugherty

Published April 6, 2007

Everyone wants to be U2 these days. From The Killers to Arcade Fire, many of rock's young upstarts have mined the sound of the widely praised, yet concurrently disdained, Irish rockers. One band you wouldn't think would be susceptible to Bono's spell is dirt-bag Southern rockers Kings of Leon. Yet there it is on album-opener "Knocked Up," which has everything you wouldn't want in a first track. A 7 1/2 "epic," the song meanders for its entirety with hardly any tempo changes, numerous Edge-esque guitar flares and no chorus to speak of. The Kings make their point obvious from the get go — their 4-year-long party is over.

Everyone will take this news differently. Many have long considered the Kings nothing more than disposable, derivative '70s garage fluff. But many others can't get enough of the Kings deep-fried Southern boogie. Regardless, only two years removed from their debaucherous, raucous masterpiece Aha Shake Heartbreak, the Kings are moving in a completely different direction.

After Because of the Time's painfully slow introduction we get "Charmer."

"Charmer," like "Knocked Up," (and nearly the entire the album for that matter), is oddly somber. But it is also infinitely more suited to begin the album than "Knocked Up." Aside from its tempo, "Knocked Up" is unlike anything else on the album — and not in a good way. The whole affair would be easier to get behind if the song was cut completely.

I understand the boys want to expand their sound, but the song doesn't work. It is a dishonest start to the album, especially when put up against the rest of it.

And what an extraordinarily downbeat album it is. Because of the Times has one tempo and one tempo only: the mid tempo. But as disastrous sounding as this might be for a Kings of Leon album, the Followills, for the most part, manage to pull it off. They fail in some places, most blatantly "Knocked Up," but whenever the dirge of it all threatens to bring them down, they rely on their by-now undeniable talent to pull themselves through.

There are still many songs to rally behind; they just take longer to seep into your consciousness. This, for better or worse, is exactly what the Kings want.

First single "On Call" begins with nearly embarrassing U2 atmospherics but recovers with a trunk-rattling baseline and showy guitar work. The lyrics leave more to be desired than usual, but it is a good choice to show off the new Kings.

"Black Thumbnail" and "Fans" most exemplify the new "mature" Kings of Leon. "Thumbnail" is a ferocious rocker that is all too easy to picture exploding onto to the heads of frothing-at-the-mouth European festival crowds this summer while "Fans" chugs along happily, evoking the best of the Kings' past ballads.

But as a whole, the album is unusually gloomy for the band. Kings of Leon desperately want to show they are growing, but they make the common-young band mistake of overcompensating with seriousness to show growth.

So in the end, these new Kings are still safe for consumption but just a little less tasty. Kings of Leon's growing pains are coming out on record, but its growing pains are still more entertaining than just about any other rock band's party.