Only By The Night Kings Of Leon Reviewed By : Lisa Wright

Much has been said of the four Followill's not so gradual change from dirty southern garage-boys to stadium rock-gods so I'm loathe to say any more on the subject, but if you've any knowledge of their first three LPs (and unless you've been living in a cave for the past five years then suffice to say you have) then the first run through of new offer, 'Only by the Night' is, well... slightly confusing. True, 'Because of the Times' was a definite step along the Wembley-bound road but this time the guitars have been well and truly tuned to epic and there is little, save Caleb's inimitable, guttural wail, that links them to the band that first emerged back in 2003.

Of course, this is not a criticism! (no band can be expected to stay exactly the same for their entire career) This is  an adjustment, an adjustment that may mean that 'Only by the Night' takes slightly longer to warm to for those who are expecting another set of 'Molly's Chambers' and 'Four Kicks'. But take a step back from your expectations and the Kings' fourth effort is undoubtedly a great album. It's an album that knows its destiny, and that destiny is no longer just to be played in squalid back rooms by denim-clad teens but, as has been widely touted, to be the release that puts the Tennessee boys up in the big league.

'Use Somebody' is a driving, stadium-sized anthem while 'Manhattan' lets the sheer vocal power do the work, but the overriding element that seems to flow through the record is one of space. The pace as a whole is far less frantic than in previous times and with that comes a sense of ease. 'Revelry' is allowed to gradually build, letting the acoustics almost float over the vocal and even on harder tracks like Glastonbury-opener, 'Crawl', the feel is of direction and drive rather than any kind of tension. 'Closer' picks up where previous album opener 'Knocked Up' left off, giving a lesson in unstructured, emotive brilliance and then there's 'Sex on Fire', a bona fide number-one chart-topper.

Kings of Leon have always been a band lurking in the background, being secretly brilliant, in their own words, they're America's 'biggest little secret'. With 'Only by the Night' I think the secret's been well and truly let out.

9/10

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