Many fans of the Kings of Leon were eagerly awaiting the release of their fourth full-length album. Those hoping for another album in the vein of "Aha Shake Heartbreak," (2004), the perfect companion for whiskey-soaked, dance-filled nights, however, might be disappointed. "Only by the Night" steps even further away from a classic, raw blues sound and quickly assumes its place as the most mainstream and dull of any of their albums.
Outside of their music, the Kings of Leon stand apart from the rest of the music world based on their composition alone. All the members of the Kings are related, including three brothers and a cousin from the Followill clan. Born in Tennessee and Oklahoma, the Followill brothers were raised all throughout the South, constantly moving to meet the needs of their father who made his living as a traveling preacher.
In their older music, the Southern influence is very tangible. The guitar blares and wails like the southern blues of yore, and the bass drives along, turning heads and shaking hips rather than settling for a role as the backdrop for the rest of the instruments. The drums are decked out with a healthy portion of tambourine and follow an upbeat tempo almost certain to shake a leg or two.
The most distinct aspect of the Kings' sound would have to be the voice of the lead singer, Caleb Followill. It can only be described as raspy, possessing an accent that one can only imagine was formed in the deepest and darkest regions of the South. Although the new album takes an even more dramatic step away from this wonderful ruckus of a sound for which they had become famous, that's not entirely a criticism. There are still some catchy tunes that might start your fingers tapping and your feet stomping. The single "Sex on Fire" stands out from the rest, but the other gems are few and far between. The vast majority have a very bright and clean soft rock tone about them, exemplified by the song "Crawl," which could almost certainly pass for a U2 song hastily recorded while Bono was getting over an awful cold.
The main differences between "Only by the Night" and the band's previous albums are the tone of the music and the style of Caleb's vocals. As stated earlier, the tone sounds very pretty and pop-esque, with a decidedly "produced" quality about it. The vast majority of songs are undistinguishable from each other, as the lyrics are just as unremarkable as the music.
Where frontman Followill's unique mix of whiny singing and nasal preaching would have usually rendered most of the lyrics impossible to understand, this time around his attempts to hold melodies and hit high notes make the songs easier to decipher at the cost of being incredibly boring.
The fact of the matter is that Caleb Followill is not a singer in the classical, or any other, sense. The only reason no one questioned his singing before is that most don't even identify it as singing, per se. He had perfected the scumbag Southern blues singer schtick, but for some reason now seems to be aiming to conquer the realm of pop/rock. Though "Only by the Night" is a step in this direction, he most certainly does not accomplish this goal.
The good news is that the album does start to grow on you after a few listens. Songs like "Manhattan" and "17" begin to sound just a little bit more like the older Kings. Overall, however, "Only by the Night" stands testament to the bands fatigue accumulating over the years, a trend which, sadly, shows prominently in their music.
