How do you even begin to review an album like Come Around Sundown, the fifth studio offering from southern rock champions Kings Of Leon? I don’t say that for anything as fashionable as backlash on the band nor do I want to align myself with those who see them as the second coming. What piqued my interest with Come Around Sundown, and in turn made it so difficult to review, was how filled with particles it is.
There are things about this album that work, things that don’t and yet somehow those two elements cross back and forth against each other. At times the album makes what doesn’t work, work, but it also takes some great ideas and ruins them. Fans might say this is a transitional record, some will say it harkens back to Youth And Young Manhood. Either way it’s an odd slab of music that Kings Of Leon have placed before us.
The overall effect of Come Around Sundown is a chilled out, almost California mellow, surf rock album with injections of southern rock. This is great driving music, tunes that could be the end credits to any independent movie that closes on a melancholy note. There isn’t a real sadness to the record, just a downshift in mood that’s highlighted by loud guitar parts opening up the music the way a sunrise lays across a desert scene.
I will say that Come Around Sundown is a gorgeous album, in the same way that the ocean or a mountain peak would take our breath away. Had the album been a continuous collection of those moments it would’ve ended up as one of the best of the year. What does Come Around Sundown in is its inconsistency.
Take the lush guitars, something that creates great mood and feeling in the first few songs. However the guitars never really break from the feeling so by mid-way through the album, its grown monotonous. Same could be said for the voice of Anthony Caleb Followill, which has always sounded to me like a strange mix of Roger Waters, Tom Petty, Bob Seeger and .38 Special. When Followill opens his pipes it’s a pretty magical thing, the man can sing with the best of them.
The problem becomes that he doesn’t stray too far from that his semi-southern drawl and, again, it gets monotonous. Even the spatial song structures work part of the time and the rest leave you wishing for just a little more. Nothing here is a complete failure by any means it just doesn’t click the way it needs to.
When the clicks do come in, they come in with great results. The tune “Back Down South” is a dark highway on a clear night. Starting with a slide guitar that fades softly behind the vocals, it shows the power in songwriting these guys have. I was also really impressed with the Beatles influenced “Mary” that sounds like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Silver Bullet Band. Often when the guitars become dull on Come Around Sundown, they become sharpened by some of Followill’s vocal trickery, at other times the guitars open up and engulf the vocals, allowing some distance from them.
Kings Of Leon are practitioners of the bright album. Sonically everything has a crisp and clean punch to it. I don’t mean to say it’s over-produced, more like the band just opened everything up to let the sun shine in. Even the more melancholy work sounds bright, as if you were a weary by inspired traveler on a warm, bright, summer’s day.
Come Around Sundown glows from track to track without sounding sappy or overly emotional. Usually bands that try to sound “bright” mistake it for either production that’s too clean or vomitous, drippy, teenage emotions. Kings Of Leon are making music for adults and knowing that they let the music sound bright without forcing it.
So much goes in and out from song to song on Come Around Sundown that many without a critical eye will overlook the faults. Even the problems I have with the album are from a certain context. What’s good I wanted more of, but instead I kept hearing lost opportunities and missed musical chances.
I’m not a die-hard fan of the Kings Of Leon so maybe I’m looking at the whole thing too closely. I just think, while Come Around Sundown is really good, it’s just shy of being great. I know this band has a classic album in them and Come Around Sundown is proof that they’re on a great track.
CRAVEONLINE RATING 7 1/2 OUT OF 10
