Kings Of Leon

They've left the boogie pretensions behind for a more honest, modern post-punk sound, which is good news. Coupled with the fact that Aha Shake Heartbreak boasts decidedly likeable songs and a lead vocal style that, while gimmicky, really works, and you have hipster music you don't have to feel guilty liking.

Kings of Leon -- singer-guitarist Caleb, drummer Nathan and bass guitarist Jared Followill, all
brothers, and their cousin, lead guitarist Matthew Followill -- are a great young rock & roll
band from Tennessee that has made two nearly great albums. Aha Shake Heartbreak is the
second one, and like the first, 2003's Youth and Young Manhood, it is a fuzz-encrusted
rocket of controlled violence: the first Clash LP with AC/DC brawn and American... More >

There's an early-Stones feel here it would be perverse to deny: 12 songs in 36 minutes, each with an indelible identiriff and its own seductive rhythmic shape. Caleb Hollowill's slippery wiles recall Jagger's without grasping Jagger's gift for the pungent phrase. That Hollowill avoids cock-rock clichés hardly means he's come to terms with the jezebels who were driving backsliding Southern boys past their intellectual limits long before Elvis paid Mr. Phillips to record his love song to Gladys. (Grade - B+)