Audiography Collaborative Music's Blog

With whisky-soaked vocals and dirty, raspy guitars the Kings of Leon broke into the mainstream straight away with their debut album Youth and Young Manhood in 2003. The record stood them apart from their American peers and UK counterparts by combining a heavy southern American influence with a raw, overdriven sound that channelled the band’s natural energy and brotherly relationship. Made up of siblings Anthony Caleb Followill, Ivan Nathan Followill, and Michael Jared Followill, as well as their cousin Cameron Matthew Followill, each member of the band is known by their middle name.

Wearing their blues influences on their shoulders, this southern rock quartet added a more alternative rock sound to their debut album which initially brought them only UK chart success, with several UK hit singles too. However it was the brother’s Church-going background which perhaps shaped their original sound the most, as they would regularly travel up and down the United States for weeks at a time as their father was a United Pentecostal Church preacher. Once their father divorced from their mother though, the boys soon moved to Nashville and began enjoying the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle that they had so far been denied in their early teenage years.

Signing not long after this period to RCA records, the two eldest brothers, Caleb and Nathan, added their younger brother and cousin to the fold before hitting the studio to record their debut long player. Despite Jared being only sixteen and still unable to play the bass guitar with any degree of success, Youth and Young Manhood received rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, and hits like California Waiting and Molly’s Chambers earned the group much-deserved radio airplay. However it was the band’s UK audience that really helped them become a big name around the globe, with the influential NME newspaper calling the release “one of the best debut album of the last 10 years”. Massive tour supports with the likes of U2 and The Strokes followed, where the band solidified their live show and earned fans by the thousands.

Just over a year later and Kings of Leon returned with their sophomore record, Aha Shake Heartbreak. Building on their newfound success, the album largely followed on from its predecessor and lyrically covered the affect fame and celebrity had the lives of these four small-town boys. More celebrity fans were added to the mix too, when Bob Dylan personally invited ‘The Kings’ on tour with him.

However it wasn’t until the release of their fourth album, Only By The Night, that the band fully broke into superstar status. Old fans were no doubt surprised by the group’s quite drastic change in direction, as the album saw the raspy, southern rock sidelined in favour of a far more slick and polished sound. The charts responded well to the release though, as it entered straight in at number one and remained there for over a week, as singles like ‘Sex on Fire’ and ‘Use Somebody’ also both hit the top spot. The next album from the Kings of Leon Come Around Sundown is due for release on the 18th October 2010.