Things seemed rather bleak recently when the first new Kings of Leon song in three years surfaced. Sure, there are entertaining elements to “Supersoaker”, but it has this odd quality about it that borders on annoying and bland. Perhaps it’s the title, one may never know.
This is probably a matter of personal preference, but it’s a bummer when bands choose to make their already-released single the first song on new albums. That is what the Kings have done with “Supersoaker” on their much-anticipated new Mechanical Bull. What happened to the days were the opening track on an album was just that, new? It seems more impactful and exciting if your ears are met with something you’ve never heard before when you first press that ‘play’ button. Well, that is if you didn’t either pirate this album ahead of time or listen to its stream on iTunes a week before its release.
The Kings’ last record, Come Around Sundown (QRO review), did seem a bit rushed when it followed up their smash album Only By the Night (QRO review). The latter ended up being way bigger than even the Kings themselves anticipated, so in a way it’s sort of unfairly set up anything that came after it. Come Around Sundown was a bit of a deflation of the collective balloon of excitement surrounding this band, as it had only two or three really good songs on it. In that regard, despite the natural tendency to draw comparisons to Only By the Night, even though it was two albums ago, in an odd way because of Come Around Sundown, expectations for Mechanical Bull have been concurrently high and low.
It’s often tough to boil an entire record down to a single idea, but if that were done with Mechanical Bull (and the band themselves were forthright with this idea) it would be that it sounds a lot more like their first two releases, 2003’s Youth & Young Manhood and 2004’s Aha Shake Heartbreak, in that it’s back to that garage-rock vibe – and that’s only during the times it rocks hard. Well, ‘hard’ in the context of the album itself, as it doesn’t rock hard in the soaring way that Only By the Night did. Rather, Mechanical Bull is a mix between the more mellow sound of Come Around Sundown and the garage-rock of those first two albums.
The Followills themselves have even contributed directly to this throwback outlook, “It has a couple songs that will appeal to fans of every Kings of Leon album: If you’re a Youth & Young Manhood fan, you’re gonna love ‘Family Tree’, because it’s funky and dirty and nasty. If you’re into Aha Shake Heartbreak, you’re gonna love ‘Supersoaker,’” said drummer Nathan.
Of all the Mechanical Bull tracks, “Tonight” comes the closest to an Only By the Night sound with its soaring chorus with and open drumbeat. Another noteworthy piece is the seemingly melancholy yet hopeful second single, “Wait For Me”, in which Caleb Followill proclaims that he’s “gonna open my heart, right at the scar and listen up.” Perhaps that’s an indication of the changes that have happened too all these guys personally (having almost all married and had kids by this point) and nowhere will those changes be more evident than in their music. Mechanical Bull might struggle to add new Kings of Leon fans to the fold, but it’s certainly got something in there for long-timers.
