Kings Of Leon

The Kings of Leon never made much hay with American audiences -- especially compared to the arena-sized fawning they get in England -- which perhaps explains their reinvention on Only by the Night, which sees them transform from Strokes also-rans to grandly reverberant howlers. It can seem a bit put-on (the overfed swagger of the first single, "Sex on Fire," is a clumsy pole-dancing anthem) and plodding ("Crawl"), but when they channel the sex-god Morrison complex, it might just charm off some low-rise denims.

Free from their strict Pentecostal father, Kings of Leon's Followill brothers (plus cousin
Matthew) spent their first two records establishing themselves as horny Nashville
youngsters with a neo-garage-rock style that got them tagged as the "Southern Strokes."
Nowadays, the Kings are feeling a different sound: Like last year's Because of the Times,
Only by the Night is long on astral, arena-ready largeness, with blippy keyboards,... More >