After the seven minute epic that opens the third album by Kings of Leon comes one of the hardest rockers that the band have produced to this day.
“Because of the Times” was allowed to be streamed on the band’s MySpace (remember that) before it was originally released. I couldn’t begin to tell you what I thought of the song when I first heard it; I was just waiting for “On Call” to start. I just remember it being very loud. I can tell you more now though.
“Charmer” begins with a looming and ominous bass which repeats its pattern throughout most of the song, whilst the guitars play various riffs which make the overall sound quite dissonant and strange. Caleb Followill screams a lot in the track which was compared to those of Black Francis from Pixies by critics, if I remember correctly.
My favourite part? The breakdown when the rhythm section plays, then Caleb joins in on guitar which ultimately segues into a piercing solo before the song ends on its final chorus.
There are creepy people out there. There I was going down the escalator in Stratford’s Westfields so we could wait for a mate who needed to go to the loo, when these two guys came over to us asking if we were born again Christians. They then directed their attention to me, and told me to ‘talk to them privately’ to say the ‘prayer’ and I was like “FUCK THIS, I HAVE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE”. So I told them a wrong phone number and made up a name for myself, and proceeded to leave the mall with my friends.
It was very scary. I’ve never wanted to be anywhere else in the world like I did during those moments. I’m really glad to be home. Typing to you.
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Right. Kings of Leon. I’ve probably said as much as I can on what I think about them in other posts. Thinking about it now, I’m positive that I’ve only done one post. But in short, from Youth & Young Manhood to Because of the Times = good stuff, Only by the Night onwards = the bad stuff. Except “Supersoaker” and “Wait for Me” which depicts “Mechanical Bull” as something that will be a return to form. We can only hope. Well, I can only hope.
“The Bucket” was the first song to be released from the band’s second album “Aha Shake Heartbreak” in 2004, which is my favourite album they’ve done. I can’t remember when I first heard it. I’ll just say it was on MTV2. Yes, it was on MTV2.
I wonder who yells “Wooooooo!”at the start. It sounds like someone fucked up and didn’t know they were recording, but I can’t imagine the song without that exclamation. I’m just used to it after listening to the track for all these years.
The subject matter of “The Bucket” is the band’s bassist Jared Followill, who was having problems dealing with the fame of being in the band.
The thing that I’ve always liked about older Kings of Leon songs, especially those on the Aha Shake and Times albums, is Caleb’s vocals. Now he’s older he actually sings from the stomach, but I preferred those when his voice was breaking almost every time he tried to reach the high notes. There’s a bit of this in “The Bucket”.
To put it simply, everything in the song is from the poster. The horse’s name wasn’t Henry though. It was actually “Zanthus”. I don’t think “Zanthus the horse dances the waltz” would have been as good of a lyric though. Mind you, if they had used that lyric it wouldn’t have been banned on the BBC for supposed “drug references”. Silly BBC.
If you own the vinyl version of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, this song closes the first side of the album. To emphasise the circus theme of the song, their renowned producer George Martin asked the engineer to chop up recordings of various faiground organs and calliope music, throw them in the air and reassemble them at random. These are the noises used for the instrumental break, and also during the outro of the song. It took five days for the band to make this, and is regarded to be one of the more complex songs on the album.
It’s used in this epic mix on the LOVE album from 2006 too.
Until tomorrow.
Jamie.
Kings of Leon – “Supersoaker”
Alright! So Kings of Leon are back, and this is their new single “Supersoaker”. There’s the audio-video right up there.
It premiered yesterday on Zane Lowe’s radio show on BBC Radio 1. I missed the first time it played.
But then it played again later….. and I was quite pleased! Only a few posts ago was I talking about how I didn’t like the new sound that they were going for now and how I was dissappointed that they had sold out or whatever. But this song is like a mix of that sound and their “Aha Shake Heartbreak” material. Reminds me of “Taper Jean Girl” in particular. This is what I wanted. They’ve gone back to where they once belonged. You can hear their roots in the song. The only recent song I can think of when they have done this is “Back Down South”, and that’s not even a bad song. I find myself singing that from time to time. Stick to your roots, KOL.
It’s a thumping four-on-the-floor western rocker with Caleb’s crooning vocals over the relentless guitars and jumpy bassline in the verses and everything. Yeah… I can dig this. This is a good first single.
Their new album “Mechanical Bull” is released in September.
I am, admittedly, a Kings of Leon fan who prefers their music prior to “Only by the Night”. Sure, “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody” were major successes for them – and that’s great. I just like it when they weren’t aiming for this big, stadium filling sound that they seem to have been going for since the album’s release in 2008. Ever since they cut their hair, which I first noticed in the video for “Charmer”, things just started going downhill for me. I’m just saying. Don’t hate me.
“Be Somebody” is the highlight from the album for me. That’s only because the two songs I’ve mentioned above are repeated endlessly on the TV or radio. I can’t get no satisfaction when I hearing them sung by contestants on the X Factor, or Britain’s Got Talent, or other inane Saturday night ITV programmes that are on.
It sounds like a song that could have been on “Because of the Times”, I don’t get a sense of “Ooh, look at us we’re this huge band now and you should listen to us” vibe that I get from other songs on the album. It’s a haunting song, emphasised by the descending riff in the verses and the shrieking guitar in the breaks between the verses until you are suddenly lifted by an uplifting sounding chorus, where Caleb reaches the top of his lungs singing how he’s going to be somebody.
To summarise, for me it’s the only good song on the album. I’ll stick to their tunes from when their hair was long.
Until tomorrow.
Jamie.
P.S. Congratulations to Andy Murray, who became the first Briton to win Wimbledon in 77 years. He’s still Scottish.
The Music in My Ears 
