Kings of Leon - WALLS

Kings of Leon
WALLS
2016
Spotify

It is hard to see a band fade, especially one so likable as King of Leon. Their down home upbringing, their infectious folk rock, and damn good looking members meant a heap of commercial success during the folk-rock revolution that the world went through. That country-esque style however has given way to 80s sheen in pop music and left the Kings playing catch up. Marrying models, a shit ton of money and a seemingly endless production budget means that this new record WALLS sounds super slick, but lacks the punch of the bands older style of writing. Their shit to the commercial and pop means that any southern soul the band had is given way to arena filling songs made for tweens rather than discerning adults. The music of WALLS is perfectly fine, but also so generic to be almost grading. They want you to like these songs so badly that all the edges are smoothed over and the lyrics drilled down to an almost unintelligible dribble. "Around The World" is perhaps the worst of the worst, an upbeat pop song about, you guessed it, traveling around the world. Repetition is certainly a huge part of song writing but hearing "around the world" or some version of it 1,000 times on the track is so incredibly annoying. The highly 80s affected bass does the band no favors taking what could be a really polished bassline into something fucking totally annoying. This is music we should be hearing from Maroon 5 not Kings of Leon.

The one time the band lets the reins out a bit and really goes for it is on "Find Me" which despite it's slick production maintains a grungier sound in the rhythm section making the song really work. It's a real rock song from who we have always assumed was a real rock band. The lyrics of WALLS are often wrapped up in whether or not your significant other is going to leave, which seems so unrelatable to the average listener, and never really reach any emotional ending point. We are left just to wonder in space forever apparently. "Over" is another overblown track produced within an inch of it's life to be epic, complete with more than a healthy dose of "ooohhhsss" and "aaahhhss". It doesn't help that this generic track has an over six minute run time for no reason what so ever. "Muchacho" follows suit with an out of no where south-west sounding track that is in a word, stupid. That is where the album suffers the most is that nothing really reaches a point you can be satisfied with. They are toying with being a full on pop-rock band, but to scared to leave their roots, and they want that commercial success but do not see their old ways as a path there. This is a band who are really unsure of their direction and it shows on a really weak album. Not worth your time, nor was it worth mine.

4.2 out of 10