The Kings have just wrapped up their Aussie/Kiwi tour with their Montreal buddies, The Stills (who they've toured with every year for the last four years). Thanks to Youtube a bit of what may be in store for KOL fans on their next album has been revealed and let me be the first to say... it sounds GOOD!
If you've been following the (kind of hard to believe) extraordinary rise of the Kings of Leon over the past few years, you'll know that each album put out by The Kings tends to be different from the last. They started out in 2003 with Country sounding Bluesy/Boogie-Woogie Rock on Youth and Young, which turned into frantic and immature sounding Country/Rock and Roll on Aha (arguably their best album to date), which then became Hard Rock and Roll on Because of the Times, which most recently kind of slumped (IMO) into generic anthemic Pop Rock on Only by the Night (It's still a great album though, aside from a few choice tracks... the B-sides are stellar though). So hearing this new track "The Devils Song" (?title?) has me breathing a sigh of relief to know that now that they've broken the worlds music markets with their somewhat lackluster and overplayed single"Sex On Fire", they'll finally be able to get back to making good music again.
We all know the Southland gave birth to the Blues and this track sees them reaching back into their Tennessean roots. It seems to be an ode to their church hollering and praising days, with lyrics including "ain't gonna sell my soul to the devil, ain't gonna go down to her level, ain't gonna sell my soul to Lucifer, tell your girlfriend I ain't got know use for her". It is heavily influenced by soul/negro-spiritual/blues (almost reminds me of YAYM's "Dusty") which are a couple of genres that I personally love. So if this track is a telltale sign of the direction that their next album will be taking (which they said should be out sometime in 2010), then I'm 100% on board and forgive them for the sad sad song that is "Sex on Fire" and will agree to put the past behind for better or for worse.
Caleb explained: "I think it's up to us to keep our heads on straight and try to make an album that's better than the last. And I don't necessarily mean one that has pop hits on it or anything. I don't think a song has to be verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, double chorus. But who knows? I don't want to encourage it [though], I don't want someone to get dropped from their label for having a 45-minute slow jam." - Daily RecordKings of Leon will be back in Toronto on April 21st playing a sold out show at the Air Canada Centre.
Enjoy-
SLICE
Newcastle Entertainment Centre, Australia - 03.22.09