Second Album Blues

The Kings of Leon are one of the many American groups to have found lots of success over in Britain, failing to astonish their native audiences with their own distinctive types of music. Other groups to come to this glorious land includes the strangely popular 㣪s revival group Scissor Sisters or the disco-meets-indie quartet The Killers. And Kings of Leon have found a home and success here, playing on main stages at Glastonbury and other such festivals over the last three years off of the back of the success of their acclaimed and feted debut album Youth and Young Manhood. It is rare that a band such as this, hyped up and with such a high profile, come back with an astonishing second record. Most of the reviews of this I have read have been positive, but I just fail to see why. The band is a family unit consisting of brothers Caleb, Nathan, Jared and Matthew Followill. I will admit that telling them apart is difficult; despite the fact they have shaved off their abundant facial hair, except for the drummer.

The problem with this second record is that it is attempting to create a distinctive sound for the group, and at times that comes through. But most of the time the band simply fails to produce half-decent tunes and the songs sound lazy, far too basic and some are just dull and inane. Gone is the excitement and gone are the rough, jagged guitar riffs of the first album. There is almost no remnant of their first album whatsoever in this record, which is a mistake, because there was a reason that album was excellent – it sounded fresh, original, impassioned and exciting. Here the music sounds poorly written, the guitar work is jarring and at times forced and dull. You can’t blame the group for trying to create a new sound for their second album, but I’m afraid the only noise you’ll be making during this is a laboured yawn.

1. Slow Night, So Long (3:54)
The album opens with a dusty and old-fashioned guitar tune that doesn’t exactly set things off in an exciting gear. On the first record we had the vicious ‘Red Morning Light’ that began things at a fast and rocking pace. This meanders along wastefully. The bass line then comes in, by rote, and then this jerks into a rather unremarkable and flat opener. The music surges at the chorus with some speedy guitar riffs and some energetic drumming tries to force some life into it. This speedy surge acts as the chorus, in fact, and there is a distinct absence of words or any attempt at the type of brilliant chorus from the first album where everything just came together wonderfully. This surge is quite irritating and premature the second time around, as well. This track then completely stops at 2:47, and then it drifts into a strange, bongo-led cool-out session where some piano plonks aimlessly behind the geriatric bass and sedated guitar, which is barely audible. Caleb, or whichever Followill is on the vocals, then sings some odd lyrics: “Rise and shine all you gold-digging mothers, are you to good to tango with the poor poor boys.” The lyrics here err on the side of the most inane and befuddled stuff from their first album, and gone is the sense of humour and fun – these bizarre and confusing lyrics are sung seriously through Caleb’s guttural voice and he just sounds ineffectual without the self-deprecation from the first album. This then comes to a limp end and messily collides into the next track with no gap between the two – this happens all the way through the album and sounds messy and muddled, plus at times you can’t tell when one track begins and another ends.

2. King Of The Rodeo (2:25)
This is the second single from this album, and it begins with a bouncy rhythm, which is utilised for quite a few of the tracks on this record, for want of anything more impressive or significant, I presume. This bouncy rhythm does mark a departure from the first album, and the band have completely ditched their inspired use of the glockenspiel that was a fine touch on tracks such as ‘Joe’s Head.’ This has some average, but hopeless muffled guitar work, which simply doesn’t jump out at you like you want it to, and the main melody from the lead guitar is bland and repetitive. The lyrics are indecipherable and nothing spectacular. They are printed this time around, but you have less interest in what he is singing, so that really is unimportant. The chorus I suppose is meant to be the most appealing thing about this. It is sung quickly and strays on the edge of exciting, but falls short of the mark, like most of the songs on this album. It is also far too short like many of the tracks that may be released as singles or are supposed to be snappy and provide quick, instant fun. You won’t find any ‘Molly’s Chambers’ style songs on here.

3. Taper Jean Girl (3:05)
This starts with some appalling drumming and for the rest of the remaining three minutes they try and salvage something from this Hindenburg of a beginning. They don’t really have to try very difficult to match this badly bashed and mediocre drumming, which sounds like he’s using a half-full bottle of Cola instead of drumsticks, and a light and energetic rhythm takes the reigns and makes this a fairly infectious track. Just when you think they are about to leap into an exciting chorus, they slow things down and any hopes of excitement are shattered in two. The third section has a bland, repeated guitar ‘solo’ that hearing once was bad enough, and Caleb’s vocals actually just irritate here – the man cannot sing and he isn’t conscious of the fact. The lyrics are also fairly inane and basic and a desperate speedy lunge, where they try and resuscitate this dying track is unfortunately met with an inevitable long beeeeeeeeeeep…

4. Pistol Of Fire (2:20)
This sounds possibly exciting with the guitar building up, but then once the thing begins, the repeated rhythm is just all that happens mainly through the song. This simply seems lazy and uncreative, and this track is just seemingly built on a single manoeuvre on the guitar. They attempt another solo, which again consists of one new phrase repeated boringly, and nothing remotely original happens with the vocals except a ‘Aiyah’ chorus which I guess is their attempt at the sing-along style of the first album. The final section of this jumps into another forced, let’s-speed-up-for-the hell-of-it section, which makes irritating use of the shaker throughout its lazy, uncomfortable time-jump. This reminds me a little of the song ‘Holy Roller Novocaine’ from their first album, but it is nowhere near as exciting as this track, which was actually one of the weaker ones of this release. It bows out at a feeble, inconsequential 2:20, its head held down in shame.

5. Milk (4:00)
This awful, faux-sincere ballad is the single most tedious, laughable thing on this, and it saps 4 minutes of the albums tiny running time, sucking it into a vacuum of Sisyphean boredom. It begins with a quiet keyboard holding a sustained note – this does nothing, in fact it is barely even audible. An acoustic guitar then comes in right speaker only – this is also barely audible and makes about a much impact as a sponge to a stained-glass window. The worst part of this track, however is the ‘singing.’ As mentioned before, this fellow cannot sing – he has a throat full of gravel, cigarette ash and colostomy bags. He attempts a Southern drawl and tries to twist his voice to reach emotional notes that just don’t hit. At one point in this album, he actually succeeds in sounding earnestly emotional, but he uses a more soft and toned-down voice for the track ‘Day Old Blues.’ In this he tries too hard to sound pained and heartfelt, despite singing the most useless and confusing lyrics that at times err on the side on improper English usage – other times he just makes words up to rhyme. The keyboard provides a background drone, the bass just feels uncomfortable and clueless and this track really fails horribly at its attempt to create a tortured ballad. This track really gets on my nerves – the last thing this album needs at this point is slowing down, and here we are stopped stationary to the point where cobwebs are forming under our arms. A repeated guitar solo is again offered, but doesn’t help in the slightest – everything is wrong in this track; I can’t think of one redeeming feature. I especially despise the lyrics in this, more specifically the dreadful chorus: “She saw my comb over, her hourglass body, she has problems with drinking milk and being school tardy.” I’ve no idea what in the name of Ezekiel 25:17 he is on about and this is duller than an evening with a drugged-up John Major. I fail to see what they were trying to achieve with this, and it is unfortunately the longest song here.

6. The Bucket (2:55)
The first single from the album, this utilises the dull formula of quick verses into a watching paint dry chorus. The lyrics are a slight improvement, despite the fact the word ‘kick’ has been omitted from the title of this song. This inaccuracy bugs me, as does the fact that I have nothing positive to say about this song. I wish I could, but the mind goes blank.

7. Soft (3:00)
Opens with a horrible Calypso guitar melody that actually succeeds in sounding out of tune, and then we are introduced to the verses. These consist of bad word play, bad time signature jumps and poor guitar-drum synchronicity. The chorus is again turgid, and Caleb’s vocals are restrained and bland. Gone are the wild hysterical leaps such as on “Trani,’ and there is a complete absence of that frantic freshness and exuberant performance that we got from tracks such as ‘Happy Alone’ or the aforementioned ‘Joe’s Head.’ On this record we get stripped-down, basic performances that are the very embodiment of the concept of disappointment, The third section of this song makes it even worse as we get some awful left speaker, right speaker guitars and then the chorus drags itself on too long it some sort of desperate attempt to capture that magic of the first album. It ends feebly and emptiness is all you shall feel.

8. Razz (2:15)
So, by this stage in the album, I think we can conclude this is a bad second album. If the first eight tracks are boring and unoriginal, and bad, then this deserves to be written off. This is that eighth track, and by this stage on the album you will be decidedly fed-up by this stream of short, mediocre tracks, one after the other. If the tracks must be this short, they have to be exciting and make an impact. But they just don’t! They just sound blummin’ tired. With this the bass begins things and then some more mediocre drumming comes in with a sigh. Cue another unoriginal bouncy main melody, cue another nondescript chorus and cue another round of meaningless vocals. I must admit that at 1:30 the band has a rare flash of creativity and quite an exciting guitar solo plays until the end. This wavers between exciting and boring and, alas, it is only remotely exciting for about 45 seconds and then the track stops before something could be done about it. The band must have thought that this was too exciting and so they better stop it before someone has an inkling to tap their toes to the beat.

9. Day Old Blues (3:32)
This wonderful track, easily the best thing the Kings of Leon have ever recorded, takes you by surprise. Throughout most of the album the play a deadly game of Russian roulette, shooting themselves in the head for most of the time. Here their experimentation pays off. A song like this shows the group in a wonderful light, but it is just a shame this was a lucky one-off. This is another slower ballad but unlike ‘Milk’ it pushes all of the right buttons, actually managing to sound wonderfully melancholy and achieving an unseen emotional level that is not present in many of their other songs. The success of this rests on the light guitar tune. This is a perfect little strummed phrase, and it works throughout most of the slow, brilliantly sung verses. Here Caleb sings with a restraint and mellowness that was forced in ‘Milk,’ and the words are simple but introspective and personal: “Toss me a breath when you hold me down, hot like a razor on my face/ Something’s growing that don’t help me now, paging the doctor just in case.” The verses are excellent, but the chorus is simply sublime, where Caleb sings “Day old, day old, day old, day old, day old, day old blues,” adding a unique twist to the final word that simply basks in Southern influence – you can practically taste the bourbon on his tongue. A slightly folkish ballad this may be, but is shows the group’s musical roots wonderfully and the third section where the song builds up slowly is perfectly judged. A terrific track, and proof that despite the rest of this album, the Kings of Leon are special and prolific – at least once.

10. Four Kicks (2:09)
The only real moment when they show that they haven’t lost the edginess of the first album, this abrasive and impressive track is a nice reminder of the halcyon days of 2001 when they could riff with abandon and not worry about trying to tamper with their sound. This rests on a great dirty riff that jumps in and out much in the manner of ‘Spiral Staircase’ and the guitar solo here shows up all of the weak, unimpressive ones that went before it. This is how the other songs should have been done. Ironically, this is one of the best rocking tracks here and it is also the shortest. D’oh!

11. Velvet Snow (2:10)
An unintelligible chorus, this tries hard to keep up the pace of the previous track and almost does, but chooses to follow the herd and bow out at a ridiculously short time. This is forgettable.

12. Rememo (3:19)
A wonderful closer to the album, the star of this quirky track is the drumming, funnily enough, and the dreamy guitar that jangles surreptitiously throughout is wonderfully realised. The bass and drums syncopate tremendously and this plays out like some nightmarish, eerie Western waltz. It closes with a creepy and inventive twist, playing out in the manner of some warped, loopy horror movie music that wouldn’t sound incongruous in an abandoned fairground. The lyrics dance brilliantly with the music if you’re willing to excuse the strong language, which I think works well in the context of this disturbed track. An excellent way to finish, but obviously it is heartbreaking that one of the best tracks is simply the album closer.

13. Where Nobody Knows (Bonus Track) (2:23)
But we’re not finished yet. Most of the songs bow out too early but this album is determined not to. A superfluous track, I suppose here to compensate for the lack of quality throughout. The guitars don’t know what they are doing here, and this is less of a bonus and more of booby prize. Just ignore it.

Kings of Leon: Aha Shake Heartbreak (37:36)
So, there it is. The relentless disappointment that is the poorly titled ‘Aha Shake Heartbreak.’ Fans of ‘Youth & Young Manhood’ I think should probably avoid this record, as, like me, you will only feel robbed and cheated at the bands apparent lack of skill and ingenuity. I know they have skill, but it all but seems to have dried up. There are flashes of creative brilliance on this, well two flashes, but these tracks, ‘Day Old Blues’ and ‘Rememo’ don’t justify getting this album. As far as rock is concerned, forget it. The only song that succeeds at rocking is ‘Four Kicks,’ but it vanishes before you had the time to get up and jump around to it. There are no moments of greatness comparable to the stuff from the first album, and this is just another poor follow-up from a band suddenly thrust into the limelight. It isn’t awful, just bland, repetitive and, aha, heartbreaking.