Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25 in Digital Music Album
• Released on: 2008-09-22
• Running time: 2554 seconds

Customer Reviews

The Kings
Firstly, I feel I should say that after years of buying from Amazon, and hundreds of purchases later, I have never felt compelled to leave a review. With this album, that changes. It irritates me slightly that many of the previous reviews seem to be negative, mostly written by the 'die hard fans' that believe their opinion rocks, and seemingly that the KOL should in fact, produce albums to simply suit them, and them alone. I've got all the KOL albums, yes, they are all very different in style but so they should be - i wouldn't be too happy if a group released album after album of the same old. In fact, if the albums were all along the same lines, I would imagine people will be moaning about that too. Perhaps, the critics should open their minds to the fact that the KOL have evolved. They've grown up, had a change of style, produced something different, and also probably gained a whole new set of fans in the long run. That's what a successful band does. So, to all the die hard fans who believe they've been personally ripped off and done over - the world doesn't revolve around you.

Rant over. This album is possibly the most influencial, easy on the ears, moving, inspiring, and just genuinely awesome piece of work i have ever c ome across. It's been playing in every single aspect of my life since the day it arrived. Caleb's vocals are unbelieveable. There isn't a remotely bad track on the album, although some are by far stand out winners. My personal faves are Manhattan, I Want You, and above all, Sex on Fire. It's an amazing track - sometimes you just find a song that does funny things to you...If you've read any of the reviews, and you're in any doubt at all as to if to buy this album or not, just buy it.

Best yet
I simply believe that this is their most musically accomplished album to date. I haven't been overly keen on their previous efforts, feeling that their sound was a little contrived.

I'm a fan of progressive rock and metal, Tool, The Mars Volta, Sigur Ros, Exlosions in the Sky etc...I am not a pop fan and thoroughly disagree that this is some sort of pop/rock 'sellout' album. It is beautifully written, expressive and emotional.

Well done KOL, this is the first one I've actually bought! The music also stands out live compared with their old music, this is a really positive progression for the band.

Great start but fades away
I have all three previous Kings Of Leon albums and feel the first two albums - Youth and Young Manhood and A-ha Shake Heartbreak had moments of genuine quality but were very much over hyped by the British Music Press and indeed by several KOL fans. Because of The Times though is a great record. Anyway, after hearing lead single from this album "Sex on Fire" and "Crawl" on the KOL Myspace site before release, I was excited about this forthcoming release from the Kings.

Unfortunatley, having had a taster beforehand of these two tracks, I was disappointed as the rest of the album ultimatley does not then live up to the quality of these two tracks, although opener "Closer" is an excellent song as well. After the first three tracks I was thinking this is brilliant so far. "Use Somebody" comes up next and this is also a good song before the pace drops a little with "Manhattan." Without going through all the rest of the individual tracks, my overall feeling on this record is that it starts of brilliant but then dips badly through the middle without ever really recovering.

So, all in all, it's still a good record and most people will probably enjoy it but it certainly does not live up to the hype that surrounds it - in my opinion of course! If there was a half mark I'd give it 3.5 out of 5.