Maybe They Were Tired From All That Sex on Fire

How many Kings Of Leon songs do you know?

If the answer is only one or two - Sex On Fire and/or Use Somebody, then why are you complaining about Come Around Sundown being 'too mainstream'? It's not like they've ever been mainstream before Only By The Night Anyway.

The Kings Of Leon have always been happy doing their own thing. I first heard of them in 2003 with Molly's Chambers, and then again with Aha Shake Heartbreak (which was awesomely mad).

Reta is right though, this album IS rather mellow, but since when was mellow a bad thing? I quite like it though, it's got some pretty decent songs. It IS a lot more mainstream and radio friendly than their older albums though (yes, even Only By The Night), and I get the feeling they were just being lazy when they recorded it. Or maybe they were just tired from all that sex on fire.

I have a theory though - Kings Of Leon are just messing with us, trying to get us to listen to country music and ignore them so they can go back to making awesome, non-mainstream stuff like Aha Shake Heartbreak or even Because Of The Night. Just listen to Back Down South and tell me that don't sound like country music... I tell you, they're trying to trick us into listening to all that twanging crap!

My personal favorites in the album are Birthday, Pyro and Mary (love the old school 'Ahhh ahhh-ing'), though Radioactive is probably the one that stands out most as a single (there's a much better remix version with a choir on the deluxe edition I think).

I liken this album to Wilco's Sky Blue Sky, where Jeff Tweedy and gang just toned everything down and delivered an album with just pure unadulterated melodies and songs. Come Around Sundown doesn't even come close to Sky Blue Sky, of course, but as a chillout album (as chillout out as rock music can get, that is), it's a decent album with decent songs.

Just don't expect the hipsters to agree.