Album: Kings of Leon – Mechanical Bull

Released September 23^rd 2013

RCA Records

7/10

It’s been quite an eventful few years for Kings of Leon since their abrupt – and, it would be fair to say, unexpected – jump from rugged, hairy cult heroes to stately arena rock giants with 2007’s Only By The Night and its ubiquitous lead single ‘Sex on Fire’. Critical backlash, infighting, substance abuse problems and even a bout of pigeon-excrement related gig cancellations all took their toll on the band and placed doubt on their future. The follow up, 2010’s Come Around Sundown, found Caleb & co. treading water and unsure of what direction to take, and an exhausting world tour ultimately forced the band into a much-needed hiatus. This has given them time to take stock, and the time apart seems to have paid off.

Mechanical Bull is the sound of a band re-energised and finally getting comfortable with their identity as a polished and unapologetically mainstream rock band. Thankfully, it also finds them rediscovering their sense of fun, resulting in their best record in a while. First track and lead single ‘Supersoaker’, with its breezy sing-along chorus and jangly guitars, sets the summery tone of the album, and ‘Rock City’ is rock ‘n’ roll at its most primitive, as Caleb shrugs ‘I was running through the desert/I was looking for drugs’ over a lazy, soulful riff. It’s sure to please the fans that still mourn the spiritual death of the band that created Youth & Young Manhood’s shouty, trashy blues rock. Other highlights include the pummeling, QOTSA-like ‘Don’t Matter’ and the anthemic ‘Temple’, which bounces along on a bassline that The Cure would be proud of. The dreamy ballad ‘Wait For Me’ has echoes of the band’s mega-hit ‘Use Somebody’, and ‘Family Tree’ is the kind of slinky southern rock we haven’t heard from the Kings since Aha Shake Heartbreak, complete with hand claps and a shuffle beat.

There’s plenty to like in the first half of the album, but the way Mechanical Bull peters out towards the end is frustrating, and stops it short of its potential. ‘Tonight’ and ‘On the Chin’ both sound like dusted-off Come Around Sundown outtakes, plodding away and piling on the faux-U2 guitars that have become KOL’s trademark. The gentle ‘Comeback Story’, meanwhile, contains the immortal refrain ‘I walk a mile in your shoes/and now I’m a mile away/and I’ve got your shoes’, but is nothing we haven’t heard before otherwise.

At first glance, then, Mechanical Bull is a record that is easy to like, but hard to truly love. That said, it does point at a promising future for the band, an outcome that only a couple of years ago seemed questionable.

A good album? Definitely. Return to form? Probably. Comeback story of a lifetime? Not quite.