That’s what elevated them from the scrum of scruffy indie bands in the early 2000s to chart-topping superstars who have sold north of 20 million albums worldwide. The three Followill brothers and their cousin are certainly capable of big gestures. As Kings of Leon have grown into an arena-sized band, the foursome has crossed back and forth over that line and their new album, When You See Yourself, is no exception.
How else do you reach that sea of people crowding into the arena, or amphitheater, or whatever? The trouble with big gestures, though, is how easily they can come to feel hollow instead. The violins soar, Caleb’s voice whispers and reverberates, and you finally get a sense of what pure happiness sounds like.Arena rock is by necessity built on big gestures. His brothers Nathan and Jared and cousin Matthew are all husbands and dads too there is a sense of unified, level-headed gratitude to live – at long last – a quiet life. “I’ll love you ’til the day is gone” Caleb sings on ‘Fairytale’ – the frontman is married to model Lily Aldridge, with whom he has two children. Somewhere between wisdom and adrenaline, the best track on ‘When You See Yourself’ finds Kings Of Leon at their most romantic. And ‘A Wave’ shifts from mournful keys to dynamic, almost jubilant riffs as the frontman confess a yearning to cleanse himself: “ Oh, wave crash down on me / Until I’m whole again.” ‘Echoing’ has the giddy adrenaline of the band’s electric first two albums, the aforementioned ‘Youth & Young Manhood’ (2003) and ‘Aha Shake Heartbreak’ (2004). Yet there are plenty of high-energy bursts of light you can already see bringing a crowd to life, too. “Is this the world I belong to / Or just a shade of light?” Caleb asks on ‘Time in Disguise’, reckoning with his life lived under the spotlight for so long. ‘Supermarket’, first introduced to via Instagram as an acoustic ballad called ‘Going Nowhere’ last March, reworks demos dating back to 2008 and speaks of “going nowhere”, but, most importantly, being someone who will “never be whole again / Until I get clean”.Ĭonfessions of past errors and the dissection of situations that just aren’t fun anymore earn the album a wisdom, where Kings Of Leon of the past might have preferred some kind of confrontation. The dominant feeling on ‘When You See Yourself’ is one of introspective contemplation. Take the funk-inflected bassline of ‘Stormy Weather’, or the seductive, nostalgic lyrics of ‘Golden Restless Age’, which muse on youth: “You’re only passing through a form of you / I look in your eyes and there’s a rage”. Kings Of Leon spend the whole album toying with what fans might expect – and clearly have great fun doing so. “One more night, one more night will you stay here,” Caleb sings on the album’s title track, urging for the world to slow down for just a moment – it’s surprising, refreshing even, from the frontman of what used to be the quintessential party band. There are meditations on growing older (the wistful ‘Fairytale’) and statements on climate change (‘Claire And Eddie’), interspersed with love letters to quiet, domestic romance. It’s clever to introduce the new album to the world with this crowd-pleasing track, while more vulnerable ballads and lucid battlecries patiently wait in the wings. Lead single ‘The Bandit’ channels the playful energy of KOL all-timers ‘The Bucket’ and ‘King of the Rodeo’, with its earworm riff and vivid lyrics reminding us that storytelling, daydreaming about cowboys and reckless adventures has always been what the Followills do best.
Now, with record number eight, they’ve bottled everything learned on the road in the three (slightly more underwhelming) albums since, while still reconnecting with the best parts of what made the world love these boisterous, unruly rockers in the first place. It makes sense when you consider the band’s chronology: it was with their fourth album, the moody ‘Only By The Night’, that things skyrocketed for Kings Of Leon, with ubiquitous hits ‘Sex On Fire’ and ‘Use Somebody’ finally connecting with fans in the US.
As Caleb says, the pouty bad boys of yesteryear are long gone. ‘When You See Yourself’ sees the Kings marry their interests old and new, finally embracing the mature, laid-back versions of themselves.
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