Wait a minute… didn’t Kings Of Leon claim that their new album would harken back to their old sound? You know… the time before they sold out stadiums and had even Paramore covering their songs. On “Come Around Sundown” all that reminds me of the pre-“Only By The Night” Kings Of Leon are a couple cuts like”Mary” and ”Birthday” on which they rock like they won’t make it to the next year.
Most of the time though the Kings build on the sound that helped shift 6.5 million copies of their last album. Opener “The End” shows these guys have that Edge-like wailing, slowly echoing guitar sound down pat while Caleb’s voice still manages to slither through all the cracks in the song. They do manage to mix things up here and there like on the fiddle-enhanced “Back Down South” that sounds like it came from a late-night jamming session on someone’s back porch. It’s one of a few highlights on the album. And then there’s “Pony Up” which surprisingly enough comes with a Talking Heads vibe.
All in all “Come Around Sundown” doesn’t hold too many – if any - surprises but it does show a band further establishing their sound without fumbling the ball too badly. I just wish they had been a little more adventurous rather than for a large part simply being content with repeating themselves.
Score: 7 out of 10
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