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Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: Out & About
KINGS OF LEON
Only by the NightMajor label band Kings of Leon has been called a poser, charged with feigned indie-rock posturing and appropriation of the indie subculture.
Its new album "Only by the Night" does nothing to disprove this.
The band's last release ("Because of the Times") may have garnered it praise from the mainstream press, but many fans lamented the departure from the grimy sensibility of its last acceptable album, "Aha Shake Heartbreak."
If fans were hoping for a back-to-basics Kings of Leon this time around, then the first single, "Sex on Fire," obliterates any such notion.
A blatant courtship of Clear Channel's AlternaRadio playlists, "Sex on Fire" is a topical cliché diluted by radio-friendly euphemisms.
It is all poppy, lyrical nonsense and The Cure-wannabe, jingling guitar lines.
Eerie album opener "Closer" is a premature emission if there ever was one; it is probably the strongest song on the album.
The introspective "Cold Desert" is another transcendent moment, full of intricate guitar work and a faux fade out.
In "Use Somebody" and elsewhere, Caleb Followill's voice occasionally recalls Gavin DeGraw. The allusion only strengthens with Followill's weak lyricism and the band's courtship with anthemic guitar archetypes.
When did Kings of Leon become a post-grunge anti-aesthete? When did the band members cut their hair? When did they sell out?
The point is, Kings of Leon has always been a major label confection, relying on their mass-marketed hillbilly family band narrative.
VERDICT: Though there's nothing wrong with broadening one's fan base, "Only By the Night" blatantly panders to mainstream blandness.
- Christopher Benton
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