Come Around Sundown

For me, 'Come Around Sundown' was a huge chance for Kings of Leon to push themselves back into the heart of their die-hard fans, the ones that have been there from the start. So let's start off simple. I don't really like this album. It's not awful by any stretch of the imagination, and I could probably listen to it in full again, but it's not "Kings of Leon" good. Tracks like Beach Side and The End are decent tracks when all's said and done, but there's not much soul there anymore. They seem to have given in to this "stadium rock" image that they were branded with on their last album, despite the fact that they obviously hate the idea of it! Ever since 'Only By The Night' was released, and Sex On Fire & Use Somebody got the musically-challenged strains of society gawping along like idiotic fishes in a bowl, the Followills have openly been trying to push themselves away from the scene, claiming that the next album would be different and edgier, openly annoyed by how fickle their new audience was.

But 'Come Around Sundown' is neither different, nor edgy. Radioactive, the lead single, hums with gospel-backed mediocrity, and this tends to be the situation for most of the following songs. The 4-piece seem to have lost the raw, rock ethics that spawned their first 3 albums, and have stuck with the ethereal production that turned a lot of their fans away from them on the 4th. Caleb claims that 'Only By The Night' was the "party album", fuelled by drink, drugs and sex... And if that's the case, then 'Come Around Sundown' sounds like a full-on orgy! But in reality, the only image I get from it is 4 guys who don't really party as hard as they used to, but like to tell everyone they do.

Verdict: Bland stars out of potentially awesome.