4/5
All The Kings Men.
What's going to put you together again after 2020, when we finally see a brighter day? Take a look at yourself. How about the Kings? When we were all one, the crown fit. We sang 'Sex On Fire' without protection. Now we all mask up like a masquerade ball. Not knowing what is what. Let alone who's who. It's been a long time, but we'll be fine. Just like this band of brothers. Leon hitting again like when Jean Reno took care of a young Natalie Portman and all of Gary Oldman's men in the Luc Besson classic. It's been a long time, but they're more than fine. Sometimes it seems closer to the time when the 'Sex' spawning Kings Of Leon album 'Only By The Night' set the world on fire to the tune of 6 million copies and spare change than it actually is. But 2008 was a few long term relationships ago. Albums stream now, They don't sell that much anymore and neither do this band...and that's no slight. Nothing is the same like nothing has been the same for this band since. After they lay where they were laying following their 'Because The Times' breakout, fans sought after their cult classics of the long hair like quarantine, don't care if you know what I mean, salad days, 'Youth & Young Manhood' and 'Aha Shake Heartbreak'. But since the 'Fire', fans have given tepid responses to records including 'Come Around Sundown' like a sophomore slump. All like this ride was just a 'Mechanical Bull'. Three albums over the last decade have passed by with little consequence, but they have all been cohesive sets that show these veterans are reliable on tap as a bar band for your tab. Especially their last guitar glory of 'Walls' that looked on to break on through to the other side like The Doors. Or the one they used to be on, kicking it in like the Notorious one who has a story to tell on Netflix right now for one more chance. Time for these Kings of the USA's country capital of Nashville, Tennessee to take a good look at themselves. And us too.
NSFW? Nah, this isn't selling 'Sex'. This is not suitable for bitcoin like dating apps. This is NFT (nope, not 'No Free Tickets'. No one is going to concerts anymore). A 'non-fungible token' that allows fans unique assets like music and art in exchange for their non mutual interchangeable purchase...or there's always Spotify. But this form of cryptocurrency makes history for the band as they give us a show package with concert content in a time were we need live music to keep us alive in our living rooms. But as you go 'NFT Yourself' (charming), is this audiovisual experience worth giving a f###? Well, judging from the 'Stormy Weather' of their hit single, that in the back of some classic American muscle goes for a ride in the turbulence of a car was like when those girls of 'Women In Music' Haim last Summer were in it with Hollywood director Paul Thomas Anderson, that is the forecast. And as those distinct vocals of Caleb sing to the coming storm, "Running like bulls of Pamplona/Try as I might to control you/You're like smoke in my eyes/Closed every time/Face of a starchild/Born in a sea, a mile high/Never seen a bad moon rise/It's the right time now." The band feel back like that. Right here, right now. Just like half of their album title in the self form of, 'When You See Yourself, Are You Far Away'. Pulling us close in this turbulent time with that gorgeous guitar. Locking us down with lyrics like, "This space in time, this bated breath/I’ve seen your kind at your very best/This long goodbye is overdue/You never came where I called on you." Or, "We’ve crystalized, it’s dawned on you/You have the face of someone new/The pleasures of this life I’m told/Will spit you out in the middle of the road/A scenic place the sky grows cold", for maybe their best song in a decade. It's enough to make 'The Bandit' cry as with wailing frets this band steals away another stellar single. Going like gangbusters. By the night it feels like old times again. And that's as black and white as their video visual for this audio. It's enough to move '100,000 People' like another hit...even if bands don't do that these days anymore. This one could.
Sonic sounds, These 'People' are classic Kings like everything that follow that is all killer, no album filler for a band America forgot like they didn't the heartland of Brandon Flowers' Las Vegas outfit. "You do, you do, you do" Followill sings on the hook of a harmony we'll all follow. This band catch 'A Wave' back to their late at night atmospheric sound of haunting ivory and vocals that build into ballads of beautiful rock and roll. Some critical guardians are trying to cleverly call 'When You See Yourself' "not much to look at" (that's reassuring in a time were we all need to be in positivity). How quaint. Turns out they really have a hold over nothing. Not quite grasping that this band wasn't going to make their bed with 'Sex On Fire' again. So why is everyone still f#####g with them? This band was always more than just a one night live stand. Real fans will still be here for the morning after, no matter the hangover, or dive bar music. Rock's supposed to hurt our heads now and again as it bangs and this band still knows how to throw down even when people throw beers like rocks at the Kings' throne. In this 'Golden Restless Age', this generational group have the sound to wake us up and take us back to the golden era. In a time were far too many reach for negativity (and we're even talking before the age of COVID-19 were today people at least have an excuse), you have to hand it to a band and their vocal leader who have been honing their signature sound for decades now as one of the best. It feels like this is still a new band, but clocks strike fast and around 20 years later 'Time In Disguise' just show us how iconic KOL have become as the drums beat to the riffs and licks. "Blind attraction, chain reaction/What you have is mine/Persian ivy running widly/Ashes left behind/Come a little closer, come a little closer/Closer now to the edge/Winds are blowing, fires glowing/Dancing in your head'" Say something different in this "grand occasion conversation" as you "light the crowded room". "Run from the mountain" like "poison in the fountain". Forget hate and remember why you love this band again as the dancing in your head starts a chain reaction that hopefully slow dances in the aisles of a 'Supermarket' between the fresh fruit and washing up liquid. As 'Claire & Eddie' move in time "drifting in and out like the thunder" like a flowing 'Fairytale' through the speakers ether. 'Echoing' in all this subtle, epic sound so beautiful. Nashville's Leon has had a raw deal over the last decade, but with this hand nothing's coming up but the Kings. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'When You See Yourself, Are You Far Away', '100,000 People', 'A Wave'.
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