Kings of Leon - Because of the Times

After their first two albums, Kings of Leon were still mostly known as a Southern version of The Strokes. They were always a good band but I guess they needed to change things up a bit. With their third album, Because of the Times, they proved that their music could be ever-changing and entirely different and still, very very good. And this was during a time where Kings of Leon were starting to identify themselves as a tremendously good rock band before “Sex on Fire” would hit. Now that they’ve got a good five albums under their belt, this one is probably my favorite and one that I’ve been listening to a lot lately.

There’s the hopeless romantic in all of us and I think that “Knocked Up” is that kind of crazed love, where nothing else comes in the way. And besides the subject matter, it’s easily one of their best songs with how it shifts and twists throughout its entire seven minutes with amazing ease. It’s so cliché but like Romeo and Juliet, the two lovers are bound to prove everyone wrong and have their baby together. Especially when he sings, “Always mad and usually drunk, but I love her like no other…” it’s probably the most romantic line of the whole song and still, wickedly ironic. The light chug of the drum and the guitar’s melodic grind is all the song really needs and even at the very bitter end, you never quite want it to end as it spectacularly sets up everything else on the album with such a poignant touch.

And so then there’s the album’s opposite side, the closing “Arizona” and it’s sordid love story of getting way too head over heels over some girl. The song’s got a soaring smoothness to it that even when the guitar shines through, it never sounds too polished. He’s basically fallen for a girl that’s checking him out even though she has someone else on her shoulder and in the end, he decides to stand up to the guy before getting knocked out and eventually, lays on the pavement. The song drives through nothing more than a beautiful verse and in the end, he still admits that he likes her. It’s more of loveless kind of lust than the love-filled passion in the first song but something else that only happens, because of the times. – Bryan