Kings of disappointment

Kings of Leon have lost their edge.

The Kings, comprised of the Followill brothers and their cousin Matthew, once revived what was great about rock ’n’ roll by playing a raw, rebellious sound reminiscent of The Rolling Stones.

After the Kings went on a world tour with U2, they came back with their epic third album Because of the Times, which took the rawness of the band’s first two albums and put it in an arena rock setting, escalating the band to a new level.

However, on their fourth record Only By The Night, the Followills leave their defining sound behind for a more uplifting and radio-friendly sound, ultimately producing an extremely boring album.

In a lot of ways, Only By The Night follows the same pattern as their last effort, but just not as well.

The album opens up with a heady piece and one of the album’s best tracks, “Closer,” and then heads into their catchiest tunes before diving into an exploration of musical landscapes and atmospherics.

However, the closer “Cold Desert” sounds like a cheap attempt to recreate Times’ closer “Arizona.”

“Crawl” is the album’s heaviest, featuring some nice distorted bass and a Zeppelin-esque guitar riffs before coming forth with an extremely bland chorus.

The first single “Sex On Fire” is quite catchy, but lead singer Caleb Followill’s vocals border on cheesy late-’70s rock stylings.

In the past, Caleb’s lyrical ineptness and hard-to-understand vocal style has been covered up by great riffs. But here, on tracks like “Be Somebody” and “I Want You,” Caleb’s vocals are the center of attention, and that’s not good for the band.

Either Kings of Leon have hit a creative wall, or they are just trying to sell out in a big way. Even the best tracks (“Manhattan,” “Use Somebody”) sound at best like uninspired, watered-down B-sides off Because of the Times.