Kings Of Leon: Only By The Night

Now Now is when Kings Of Leon decide to be a

faithful classic-rock-revival band For three albums, the band has teased fans

with bits of twangy Southern throwback, only to lose the hooks in swirls of

prog-rock, bursts of post-punk, or spacey expanses of moody atmospherics.

Conventional wisdom positioned the Followill brothers as this generation's

Allman Brothers, and they've finally relented with Only By The Night: The eerie guitar echo of

the opener "Closer" suggests that the band is sticking with its experiments,

but with the follow-up, "Crawl"—a pulsing, crushing rocker that's one of

the band's best—it's clear they're ditching the indie legitimacy for the

stadium-packing, lighter-waving crowd. Thankfully, it's a fully earnest

aesthetic, and the record showcases a variety of songs without being crippled

by the indulgent filler of albums past. At times, Only By The Night comes perilously close to

adult-alternative ("Use Somebody" could have been written by Train), and even

likeable songs such as "Notion" have something missing. The catchy track might

initially get the "power ballad" label, but the measured, calculated pacing

just doesn't have that much power. The Allmans would have let it rip.