the 31 best of 2008 – 6: Kings of Leon – Only By The Night

Talk about “taking me by storm”! I had never heard of Kings of Leon before this autumn, and while on vacation, I randomly saw them on Saturday Night Live. I was intrigued by their sound, and when I got back home, I decided to check them out. At the time, they had the number one single on the UK charts with Sex On Fire, and I figured that they were definitely worth downloading. After I downloaded Only by the Night,I was not expecting to get something so impressive and amazingly produced as I did. This album is raw, distorted, powerful, pure rock and roll, and each song becomes an anthem with the amazing vocals of lead singer, Caleb Followill. I’m not joking when I say that hearing his voice makes me a bit weak in the knees, and he isn’t too shabby looking either; I bet he gets laid a LOT. Seriously, that voice is emotive, fragile, tender, amazing, beautiful; I could go on and on about how much I love his voice, and the amazing music that accompanies it, which definitely made this one of my favorite albums of 2008.

The infectious single, Sex On Fire is, well, sexy, and a great almost “classic” rock and roll anthem. While it may not be making as big of a splash here in the States (well, they did get nominated for a few Grammys), Only by the Nighthas been pretty big over in the UK, and as we speak, the BEST song off of the album, Use Somebody, is making big waves across the pond. Let me just say that Use Somebody is one of the best songs that I have heard in the last 5 years; it is pure emotion harnessed into a rock song. When I hear that song, I FEEL it. As with these two stand outs, the rest of the album is an impressive rock and roll album that really took me by surprise this year. I almost didn’t want to like it as much as I do, because I had never heard of Kings of Leon before August; but this album is far too amazing to allow me to be so foolish. This is definitely one of my biggest, and best surprises this year; this album literally gets better with each and every listen. I love when I find something so wonderful and it completely takes me by storm. I will say, that not seeing Kings of Leon in concert was a huge regret of mine this year, and I will do everything I can to rectify that in 2009.

The subtleties and nuances of each song on this album make it stand out amongst the other releases I hear this year. It is almost like they are performing it for you when you listen to the record; you can here the far off sounds and the intricacies that went into crafting each song into an experience. Again, Caleb’s voice really is like a 50lb cherry on the top of the cake; I haven’t heard many voices like his, and it is so entrancing, that it really pulled me into their music more than I was expecting. I will end by saying that I think it is really cool that the band is made up of 3 brothers and a cousin; this family affair has made an amazing rock and roll album, which I am really, really glad that it captured my attention this year.

Sparkle Factor:
Stand Outs: Use Somebody [audio:http://www.duanemoody.com/audio/fsf_926_kingsofleon-usesomebody.mp3]
Sex on Fire, Closer, Manhattan, I Want You, Crawl, Revelry, Notion.