Audio By Carbonatix
Welcome to The Daily Fail.
Every morning you will see this post and I will pick out things that I see as, well, a big fail. So, I look forward to you either agreeing with me, or, more than likely, disagreeing. Either way, it should be fun.
See the first fail after the jump.
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Kings of Leon
Look, at one point, I was as big of a fan of this band as anyone else. But, that was before the Followill’s decided to dramatically change their sound from a “Southern-fried Strokes” to something on par with any of the other rock bands you hear on KISS.
How did they fail? Let’s take a look…
From Youth And Young Manhood, the band did definitely have a garage-rock sound with a Southern drawl. And of course, you can’t always sound that way–it’s only natural for a band to experiment with their sound and progress sonically. The best example of its progression is the band’s second album Aha Shake Heartbreak. Sure, the sound is similar to that of Manhood, but there is a definite progression on sounds like “Taper Jean Girl” and “The Bucket.” After opening for U2, the band continued their sonic experimentation with Because Of The Times. The minimal guitar noodling on songs like “Knocked Up” scream that the band spend most of their time standing stage side watching The Edge playing guitar on tour. This album seems like the band was wanting to reach out to indie fans who it thought would bring the band more notoriety.
But, however experimental Times was, Only By The Night was the album that showed that the band was tired of selling out venues the size of the Palladium Ballroom and wanted to move onto arenas. Don’t get me wrong: “Sex On Fire” is a great song; it would be even better if I were a 16 year-old boy getting some for the first time. Meanwhile, “Notion” and “Use Somebody” are the best examples of songs meant to hook in the people most likely not to listen to rock bands: college girls. These songs don’t feel like a natural progression. They feel more like selling your soul to the record label looking to capitalize on you.
Now with Come Around Sundown, the band continues on their Top 40 kick with “Radioactive,” the lead single off the new record, which smacks of being Kidd Kraddick’s favorite new song. It seemed the slow build to fame still wasn’t enough for the band.
And for that, Kings of Leon fail.
