| Details | | Distributor: | Phantom Import Distributi | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | DDD |
Album Notes
Kings Of Leon: Caleb Followill (vocals, guitar); Matthew Followill (guitar); Jared Followill (bass); Nathan Followill (drums, background vocals).
Additional personnel: Angelo (acoustic & electric guitar); Ethan Johns (guitar, Hammond B-3 organ, percussion).
Recorded at Shangri-La Studios, Malibu, California; Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, California; House Of Blues Studios, Memphis, Tennessee; Ocean Way Studios and GroundStar Studios, Nashville, Tennessee.
Though Kings of Leon hail from the South and boast a collective hirsute quality that would make CCR proud, they are neither Skynyrd-worshipping Southern rock revivalists nor country-tinged roots-rockers. Rather, their raw, shambling sound suggests a cross between the garage rock of the Strokes and White Stripes and the heartland sleaze-rock of Nashville Pussy. In fact, if the aforementioned garage types hadn't loosened up the music industry a bit, it would be hard to imagine a band as down-and-dirty as this foursome getting a major label deal. The songs aren't all blazing stompers; there are the occasional touches of acoustic guitar and piano and even a waltz tempo on one tune, but still in the same pointedly discombobulated spirit as the rockers. A hidden track on the end that sounds like EXILE-era Stones in heroin-country mode offers a hint to the Kings' deeper roots and leaves the option of sonic advancement open for the future.
Editorial Reviews
...With unlikely injections of Wet Willie and lyrical stories told in a drawled yell....[The Kings] were weaned on the car radio, grocery-store rock mags and hours sitting inside hot-ass laundromats...
Magnet (09/01/2003)
5 stars out of 5 - ...The kind of life-affirming, slack-strung Gibson SG, four-to-the-floor sonic blitz that makes you want to chain-smoke full-strength Chesterfields chased with lids of Hawaiian while swigging a court of Jim by the neck...
Uncut (08/01/2003)
3 stars out of 5 - ...Pedal steel guitars beckon, suggesting that the Kings of Leon are more than the right band at the right time...
Mojo (09/01/2003)
...Nashville's Kings shake up [Southern rock's] rural tendencies with the clamor of garage rock, mixing compact chords, frantic leads, and bashing drums with frontman Caleb Followill's drawl... - Rating: B+
Entertainment Weekly
...[Kings of Leon] bash and pop like they've been rock stars for years....drifts with the sort of slack backwoods passion Dylan found in Nashville skylines and the Stones saw in wild horses... - Grade: B+
Spin (08/01/2003)
4 stars out of 5 - ...The thrill is in the groove. Some of the time that means jacked-up garage punk...but the Kings are also a Southern rhythm section to the core...
Rolling Stone (09/04/2003)
Included in Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2003
Rolling Stone (12/25/2003)
Ranked #14 in Mojo's The Best of 2003
Mojo (01/01/2004)
Ranked #4 in Q's The 50 Best Albums of 2003 - [Who] would think a mix of Lynyrd Skynyrd-style boogie and New YOrk garage-punk could work this well?
Q (01/01/2004)
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