Album: Kings of Leon, Come Around Sundown (RCA)

Andy Gill
Thursday 21 October 2010 19:00 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

It's not rare for performers to burn up in the sudden supernova of success, though one wouldn't have expected it of a band that has built as steadily as Kings Of Leon, from small-scale indie credibility to chart-invading star status.

But Come Around Sundown is riddled with expressions of violent dissatisfaction, Caleb Followill's usual fretting over social inadequacies and showbiz hypocrisy reaching a height that sours many of the songs. "Everything I cherish is slowly dying," he laments in "Pyro", and he's not wrong. In particular, the musical variety of previous albums has been supplanted by an almost blanket application of U2-style cylical arpeggiated riffing that condenses everything to bombast and angst. The sole exception is the bogus country-rocker "Back Down South", which reduces that region to a cliché of drunken brawling.

DOWNLOAD THIS Pyro; No Money

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in