KOL and the motherlode

Today and next Tuesday it's the motherlode with great album releases. Rising to the top this week is what many are already calling the best album of the year: Kings of Leon's Aha Shake Heartbreak.


I really didn't get the buzz around KOL with their last album Youth & Young Manhood, as they seemed to be just a recycle of the past (could be that they were touring with the other recycle, Jet.) No matter what you thought of their first album, you should listen to this one.

Their story is an interesting one: band consists of three brothers and their cousin. Brothers Followill (Nathan, Jared, Caleb) were raised by their father Leon, a travelling, alcoholic preacher. They roamed the Southern States, spreading the gospel whilst living out of a car all the while playing southern rock and blues with long hair and beards. This time around, they seem a different band: they've shaved their beards, and are opening for U2. Much of the 'style' (if you can call the beards that) has been replaced with substance and they got a producer (Ethan Johns - Ray Lamontagne, The Jayhawks) who generously captures these preacher kids' garage rock, sixties English blues and psychedelia, and generally ethereal country-fried rock revelry. One little thing I really like about the Kings this time around is their ability to end songs with a punch - it's really a lost art in the day of the fadeout.

You with your switchblade posse,
I'll get my guns from the south,
We'll take to the yard like a cockfight
Four kicks - whose strutting now?
Kings of Leon, "Four Kicks"

Update: Last night KOL were on Letterman and rocked it rightously. They sounded great, but I have to say I expected a bit more piss and vinegar.

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