Track Listing
1. Red Morning Light
2. Happy Alone
3. Wasted Time
4. Joe's Head
5. Trani
6. California Waiting
7. Spiral Staircase
8. Molly's Chambers
9. Genius
10. Dusty
11. Holy Roller Novocaine
| Details | | Producer: | Angelo, Ethan Johns | | Distributor: | BMG (distributor) | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
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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