I sprained my wrist playing disc
golf on Thursday after taking a bit of a spill, but that didn’t stop me from
playing ulti today. You’re only as old as you feel and I am feeling pretty spry
and alive, thank you very much.
And so on to the next album which
is appropriately titled for such notions.
Disc 768 is….Youth & Young Manhood
Artist: Kings of
Leon
Year of Release: 2003
What’s up with the Cover? Looks just white but it has a
graphic of the bands’ heads when you see it at the right angle. I took a bunch
of pictures and couldn’t pick it up, but then Sheila tried her hand at it and
did a lot better – sorry about the glare, but without it you wouldn’t see the
graphic.
How I Came To Know It: Sheila bought this album after
hearing them on the radio.
How It Stacks Up: Kings of Leon have six albums,
but we have only two and no plans to get more. The two we have are this one and
“Mechanical Bull” (reviewed back at Disc 694). I prefer “Mechanical Bull”
putting “Youth & Young Manhood” second.
Ratings: 2 stars
In the last ten years rock and roll seems obsessed
with creating ‘energy’ at any cost, and sometimes that cost is focus – so it is
with “Youth & Young Manhood” which could easily be called “Youth in a
Hurry.”
There is a lot of good songwriting on this album,
and when these songs are working, so is the energy. There were times walking to
work listening to this album that this record put a welcome swagger in my step.
There were other times, though, where it felt like the Kings were trying too
hard to create that swagger.
During these times they sound like a drunken Tom
Petty and the Heartbreakers; unfocused and slurred. The slurring really bothers
me, and Caleb Followill’s vocals are often unintelligible, or worse they take a
lot of concentration just to understand them and once you do, they aren’t
terribly insightful. This isn’t an album that is about the lyrics, but if you
take the time to write some words, you owe it to yourself and your listeners to
make sure you can be understood.
It would bother me less if the slurring seemed
natural, but instead it feels like Caleb is doing it deliberately and trying to
show how he is so deeply emotionally into the song. I found it particularly
annoying on “Joe’s Head,” which is a
very cool song where the rest of the band is playing beautifully together but Caleb
is ranting over the top of it. It is still a good song, but it could have been so
much better.
There are other times when Kings of Leon feel too
deliberately derivative of earlier acts. The Tom Petty influences are
throughout, but “Trani” sounds like a
cross between the Rolling Stones and Lou Reed. And it doesn’t sound like something
new, it just sounds like a band that likes those two previous artists – like a cover
band, only playing a songs you don’t actually know.
One of the best songs on the record is “Holy Roller Novocaine” where the frantic
over-partied feel to the Kings of Leon works well with a song that is full of directionless
excess. Unfortunately, the Kings decided to make this track also contain a
hidden track, “Talihina Sky.” “Talihina Sky” is a pretty song as well,
and it’s more measured and responsible pace is a welcome way to end the record.
Unfortunately, it only appears after four minutes of dead air at the end of “Holy Roller Novocaine.” Just put them on
separate tracks next time, boys – hidden tracks done this way are no fun for
anyone.
The album is maddeningly close to being something
really special. The songs are just slightly overwritten; the vocals just one
(maybe two) steps too affected. The classic rock influences are great, but
ultimately it has to sound either a) better than what came before or b)
sufficiently different that it is worth your time.
Listening to this album I mostly wanted to just go
put on a Rolling Stones or Tom Petty album and hear how it is done right.
Worse, I was hoping someone else could take the songs on “Youth & Young
Manhood” and record them instead.
Best
tracks: Wasted
Time, Joe’s Head, Holly Roller Novocaine, Talihina Sky
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