Kings of Leon

Something happened in the Indie Rock world when I wasn't looking.  Back in, say 2001 or 2002, a young indie band called Kings of Leon came out, with a southern rock, punky, Strokesy sound.  I liked their single, "Molly's Chambers" and left it at that for a few years.  I checked out that song, based on recommendations from sites like Rolling Stone, and Pitchfork Media.

A couple of years later, I decided, on a whim, to buy their album, Aha Shake Heartbreak.  It was brilliant.  Every song was fantastic, they'd refined their sound - everything you hope a new band does between albums one and two, they'd done.  A couple of months later, I bought their third album, and was blown away anew.  They'd progressed by leaps and bounds - their songwriting now had a grand ambition sometimes, the guitars were bigger, etc.  I started to hope that I might hear them on the radio; Death Cab for Cutie had recently made the jump.

When I read, though, reviews of the last two albums by Rolling Stone and Pitchfork Media, I was confused if we were talking about the same band.  Rolling Stone put them in the category of arena rock/indie also-rans, and gave them 3, or 3.5 stars - good, but not great.  Pitchfork, however, hated them.  They compared the band, unfavorably, to 3 Doors Down, and gave them an out of ten rating in the mid four's.

What is going on?  By the way, Kings of Leon's fourth album, which I bought the day it came out, continues their exponential progression - they've somehow managed to merge southern rock, U2, the Strokes, and something else (call it x factor?) into an amazing sound.  The songwriting is often brilliant, and always good - every song on the album is good.  They've become, in a very short amount of time, one of my favorite bands.  And Pitchfork continues to invent lower numbers for the reviews, while Rolling Stone is lukewarm.  I don't understand it.

Actually, with Pitchfork, I do understand it.  They've committed the unpardonable sin, see, of cleaning up their sound.  It no longer sounds recorded in a garage, and to the Committee of Public Safety, that means they're trying to sound commercial, which means they're selling out.  Plus, Pitchfork accuses them of the most unpardonable of sins - sexism.  I've listened to the Kings' lyrics, they're no more sexist than any other rock band.  They occasionally sing about girls.  But this becomes frat-boy sexism, and you are allowed to hate the album.  Jay-Z, on the other hand, is still allowed.