Kings of Leon worked with Jacquire King to co-produce their latest album, Only by the Night, which takes noteworthy bounds forward in production value. This time around, their anthemic southern rock has been recalibrated with a new sonic palette more befitting of stadiums than taverns.
The album opens on a high note with heavily-affected guitar and atmospherics that add an interesting twist to lead singer Caleb Followill's distinctive bluesy vocals. Unfortunately, the first two cuts, "Closer" and "Crawl," stand a notch above the rest, meaning that the album effectively peaks in the first eight minutes. The third track, "Sex on Fire," a questionable selection for the album's lead single, aspires to epic heights with muscular guitar riffs but is weighed down by clunky songwriting. In fact, its vapid chorus, "And you/Your sex is on fire," perfectly characterizes the rest of Only by the Night's lyrics.
Most of the writing on the album seems to cherry-pick from juvenile rock 'n' roll clichés. Even the high-gloss sheen of the production loses its appeal in the middling second half of the album, which finds the band rearranging compositions to create a second rate carbon copy of the mediocre first half. Such homogeneity nullifies some of the band's strengths, such as Followill's exceptional vocals.
The main problem with Only by the Night is that Kings of Leon chose to spend their time honing form instead of function-it fits the mold of epic stadium rock, but on closer listen offers little substance.
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