Album review - Kings of Leon 'Come Around Sundown'

Kings of Leon
‘Come Around Sundown’
(Sony)

THERE IS an argument that the Kings of Leon could be considered rock’s version of Wayne Rooney (indulge me here); substitute Croxteth for Tennessee; both were snarling, street-smart and dragged up by their bootstraps as youngsters; both subsequently had their heads turned with the price of money, fame and idolatry (substitute Paul Stretford for Bono as you wish); both threatened to be world-beaters, but have seen their careers level off in recent years.
Hang on, I hear you say, haven’t the Southern rockers sold truckloads of records more since they went mainstream? Yes is the answer, but at what cost?
I must admit to listening to this new Kings record - their fifth - with a heavy-heart. There is little to suggest that the four-piece have cast a knowing glance at their superb, world-beating back catalogue and tried to find out where they lost that urgent, adolescent, grubby rock and roll vibe and replaced it with bland, stadium rock anthems.
However, when you allow this record to sink in (rather grudgingly as a result), it starts to re-engage you; where the Kings have lost their Southern drawl, screeching guitars and dirty, scuzzy rhythms, they have replaced it with an album that is actually quite introspective, thought provoking and tender, in parts at least.
Gone from this offering, thankfully, are the woeful Sex on Fire/Use Somebody-type tracks of predecessor Only By The Night, and present are the brooding, oft-dark and rebellious The End and Radioactive; the grungy The Immortals, the serene Pyro.
A highlight is the lap-steel and violin driven Back Down South, full of handclaps and gospel choirs, cat-calls and back-slapping; while the brassy groove of Mi Amigo is superb.
They may not have hit the heights of yesteryear, but they have gone some way toward redeeming their careers on this offering - and may yet hit the back of the net again in the future. RATING 3/5

Album review - MGMT 'Congratulations'

MGMT
‘Congratulations’
(Sony/Columbia)

THE HAND wringing and angst that has accompanied this album has been a genuine pleasure to observe.
What? MGMT have gone and made a self-indulgent, psychedelic album, with no singles? Described as “challenging”? And wanted to give it away for free? Are they mad?!
It seems the whole world wanted ‘Oracular Spectacular’ Part 2, except two Brooklyn lads called VanWyngarden and Goldwasser, who wanted to make the album they always wanted, an introspective, sprawling odyssey that takes some time to get your head around.
Let’s get one thing straight, despite what you have heard, this is not a drastic departure for MGMT - several of the songs on Congratulations are reminiscent of those on the debut album, but songs along the lines of bombastic hits Time To Pretend, Kids and Electric Feel, are conspicuous in their absence.
Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser never wanted to be the band that churns out anthemic songs like those mentioned above, which they wrote while still in college, and pasted onto their debut album for a patched-up release. Even in Time To Pretend, they lampooned this attitude, singing, tongues firmly stuck in cheek: “Let’s make some music, make some money, find some models for wives/This is our decision, to live fast or die young”.
Abandoning this route, to the record company’s despair no doubt, MGMT have channelled modern-day acoustica through a 70s psychedelic tunnel, and emerged, blinking, on the other side.
With producer Sonic Boom, or Peter Kember, of the cult British psychedelic act Spacemen 3, MGMT have made a 9-track album that is at turns beguiling and bizarre, but is very memorable, and will require many listens to get to the bottom of.
That said, they have produced some very catchy songs on Congratulations, no less than the title track, Someone’s Missing and I Found A Whistle, while the psychedelia is largely limited to the sprawling trippy-folkie 12 minute behemoth of Siberian Breaks and Pink Flloyd-esque Lady Dada’s Nightmare.
Echoing The 5th Dimension’s ‘Aquarius’ on several tracks, notably opener It’s Working, MGMT have loaded the album up with sitars, harpsichords and pan-pipes, which at times can be overloading, but ultimately, even within the twelve minute Siberian Breaks, they produce some very tender and melodic moments.
While Song for Dan Treacy sounds like something The Libertines might have produced if they weren’t, well, crap, there is very little on this album that won’t stand the test of time, and prove that the duo were correct not to merely reproduce their big hits, and instead make an effort to challenge and provoke.
As they sing in Congratulations, “Its hardly sink or swim when all is well, or the tickets sell”. Listen to this album, ignore the bluster, and make up your own mind.
RATING 4/5

Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits

Foo Fighters

‘Greatest Hits’

(Sony)

LONG BEFORE he was hanging around with Led Zep’s John Paul Jones and best buddy Josh Homme, Dave Grohl was an angry tub thumper with a little band called Nirvana, his incessant drumming raising the level of that band tenfold when he joined in 1990.

Four years later Kurt Cobain was lying in his garden shed with his shotgun, and Grohl was left bandless and aimless. He has certainly made up for that in the intervening period, driving the Foo Fighters to millions of album sales worldwide and recording six albums, as well being involved in Homme’s Queens of the Stone Age, plus side-project Probot and double-jobbing with the likes of Tenacious D, Nine Inch Nails, and latterly, Them Crooked Vultures.

The span of songs on this 16 track greatest hits covers most of the Foo’s six albums, with two new songs, Wheels and Word Forward, plus an acoustic version of Everlong - which appears on the album in both electric and acoustic form. Of these new tracks, Word Forward is the more impressive, Grohl using his trademark growl to remind listeners that the band still have that urgency that characterised their earlier hits, despite the fact that the Foo Fighters have been on “hiatus” since 2007.

That said, first single Wheels contains an engaging guitar line that is also classic Foo Fighters, Grohl demonstrating his melodic powers in spades on the track.

The Foo Fighters have always been better when tuned down and at their most relaxed, as demonstrated here by the Metallica-esque The Prentender, the earnest Best of You and the aforementioned rhythm of Everlong.

Some of this, like Learn To Fly, ranks among a category dismissed as soft-core rock and you wonder what Cobain might have made of Grohl’s later output.

However, this should not take anything away from the quality of such a track, and it is at this level that the Foo Fighters are at their peak; All My Life, Learn to Fly and Times Like These notable standouts.

Grohl was writing all the time he was with Nirvana, but was not eager to share his tracks with Cobain and Novoselic, a b-side here and a guitar riff there aside. Novoselic and Grohl did play around with ‘Big Me’ in the absence of Cobain shortly before the end, and it appears here - an almost countrified guitar line complementing Grohl’s sweet vocal - ‘but it’s you, I fell into’.

It is simply mind-boggling how many of these hits are familiar and recognisable, and it is testament to Grohl that - side-projects aside - he has spent the decade after his time with Nirvana making mainstream radio-friendly, rock anthems that are as intelligent as they are memorable.

RATING 4/5