If you’re looking for some beachy tunes this summer, you’re in luck. Kings of Leon are heading back to their roots in their fifth album, Come Around Sundown.
There’s no denying that 2009 was the year of the Kings. The Nashville family quartet dominated festival bills and charts around the world with their fourth album Only By The Night, selling over six million copies worldwide.
All of a sudden the little backyard band was everywhere. “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody” were being sung, hummed and whistled on every street corner. Diehard fans argued that the band had sold its soul to popularity, and even Caleb Followill, the band’s lead singer, was concerned that the band had become one-hit wonders.
“The fears that we did have were people just knowing us for our last record,” Followill told Today Online. “So with Come Around Sundown, we tried to show at least moments of everything we’ve done along the way,” he said.
Recorded in Manhattan and produced by Jacquire King and Angelo Petraglia, Kings of Leon’s fifth album definitely draws on ideas from previous albums. But it also redefines the band in a way that builds on their popularity while taking listeners back to a more original Kings of Leon sound.
One thing that’s remained the same is that the band still records live, together, in the studio. “Even if you can’t tell it when you’re listening to one of our songs, it’s been recorded probably the way your parents used to listen to music,” Followill told The New York Times. “I think there’s just that little something that they can’t put their finger on, but that’s one of the things that they like about it.”
In what’s been dubbed a ‘return to their roots’, Come Around Sundown has a tone that’s reminiscent of their Youth and Young Manhood album from 2003. The 13 track album combines the band’s original bluesy, hard-rock sentiments with just the right amount of sentimental American twang and dramatic choruses to keep all tastes satisfied.
“At the end of the day it has a bigger, richer quality to it than stuff that we used to do. And I think for us to not write the songs that were on our minds and in our hearts, I think it would be a fraud. We don’t want to go in there and do something that isn’t real and something that doesn’t really move us,” Followill told Today Online.
Formed in Franklin, Tennesee in 1999, the band of brothers Caleb (lead vocals), Nathan (drums), Jared (bass) and their cousin Matthew (lead guitar), are holding the torch for backyard bands around the world. “Hopefully we’re keeping the dream alive for all these bands that are in their garages and working and they see that there is label interest and stuff like that,” Followill told Toronto Sun.
“We’ll just keep working as hard as we possibly can. And for us, fortunately enough, when we are working, that is our favorite time; we have a lot of fun with what we do and we are surrounded by people that we trust and that we love, and so God’s blessed us and we’ve been fortunate. But I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone unless they are ready for it.”
FAST FACTS
Dominating the UK top 40’s chart in 2008, Kings of Leon finally cracked the US market with the release of their album Only by the Night – their first ever platinum selling album in their home country. This album was also the best selling album of 2008 in Australia.
Singles “Sex on Fire”, “Use Somebody” and “Notion” all peaked at #1 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks – a music chart in the US.
Each member of the Followill family – three brothers and their cousin – is known by his middle name in the band.
