Rated - Come Around Sundown.

I’m going to state a glaringly obvious fact, Kings of Leon are a contemporary rock force to be reckoned with. With their last album Only By The Night selling over six million copies and their tour selling out in hours, the band has gone stratospheric. Their brand of authentic stadium rock, Caleb’s intense, dry, vocals, and the clear ‘tightness’ of the band make them an interesting and dependable name in rock music. 

Their latest offering, Come Around Sundown doesn’t offer the bite of its predecessor but it has enough epic moments to make it an instant chart topper and potential six million seller. Only By the Night is one of the sexiest sounding albums of the 00s. ‘Sex On Fire’, an instant anthem isn’t replicated, but that’s probably a good thing. With this album the band avoids being stamped as ‘sell outs’ and, thank God, they have stayed off the synth bandwagon that’s overloading the airwaves right now (please make it stop!). What we have here is an authentic sounding record, with a number of tracks that sound specifically designed to sound good at ‘T in the Park’.

Lead single, ‘Radioactive’, echoes the brilliance of OBTN, forcing you into a festival trance with its roaring riff and brilliant lyrics. Track one, ‘The End’ is equally as great, showing off Caleb’s stunning voice and sounding like it would perfectly fit onto their last album. Rumored next single, ‘Pyro’ and the memorable ‘Mary’ are also album highlights. Similarly successful tracks include ‘The Immortals’, an epic moment on this record, and the fantastic ‘No Money’ which sounds like a revisit to a younger KOL. 

Unfortunately there are issues here. Although the record presents some classic KOL moments, it doesn’t have the excitement that laced almost every track of OBTN and the sharp edge of older songs like ‘Molly Chambers’ and ‘Four Kicks’. ‘Mi Amigo’ is about as interesting and exciting as a trip to Lidl and ‘Birthday’ got skipped after 47 seconds for being as bland as a sheet of Xerox. 

Never being as “wow” as their other records, Come Around Sundown falls short of spectacular. It has some brilliant moments and some, really, bloody boring ones. Regardless of the bad 20% of the album, its good tracks make it worth listening to. Don’t expect a replication or step forward from past successes, nor anything as stunning and chart obliterating as ‘Sex on Fire’ or ‘Use Somebody’, nor as dark and sexy as ‘Closer’ or ‘Crawl’. What we have here is solid stadium rock, that will no doubt contribute to an epic live experience.


3.5/5