| Product Summary | | Label: Msi Music | | UPC: 00886970377621 | | Release Date: 4/3/2007 | | Buy.com Sku: 204087484 | | Item#: M3GEC2 | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 318 | Format:  CD |
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(C) (P) 2007 RCA Records, a Unit of SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
| | Perhaps because it was the first album the band have made in which they entered the studio knowing exactly how they wanted it to sound, Because of the Times is Kings of Leon's most diverse collection yet. Brimming with ideas, it represents a huge leap forward both in songwriting and musical prowess. Though Caleb Followill writes the majority of the lyrics, "this was the first album where all four band members contributed equally and had a say so in every song," Nathan Followill says. Adds Caleb: "because we were trying to make a different-sounding record, we had to sit back and listen to each other a little more." To shepherd them through the process, the Followills turned to their long-time producers Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Ben Kweller) and Angelo Patraglia. "Ethan, man, he knows how to get it out of you how to get you to perform at your highest level," Nathan says. "And Angelo wants you to perform at your highest level, but he wants you to have fun while you're doing it because that comes across in the recording. He's the one that gets us to step out on a limb and try something that we'd never think of trying in a million years. It's a great balance."
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Kings of Leon: Caleb Followill, Matthew Followill, Jared Followill, Nathan Followill. | | Personnel: Caleb Followill (vocals, guitar); Matthew Followill (guitar, background vocals); Nathan Followill (drums, background vocals); Jared Followill (background vocals). | | Recording information: Blackbird Studio, Nashville, TN; Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA. | | Photographer: James Minchin. | | As with their first two albums, YOUTH AND YOUNG MANHOOD and AHA SHAKE HEARTBREAK, BECAUSE OF THE TIMES finds Nashville alternative rockers Kings of Leon recreating the majesty of 1970s southern rock for the emo generation. Sounding like they were raised as much on a steady diet of Neil Young, the Faces, and the best of Capricorn Records as they were on Pentecostal preaching--the father of the band's three brothers is himself a noted preacher--the Kings of Leon create classic-sounding but demonstrably modern alternative rock that appeals to both the vintage 1970s AOR audience and its kids. | | Lyrically, songs such as "Knocked Up," "Camaro," and "My Party" sound like diary entries from an archetypal bad-boy teen, a persona that's deepened by more thoughtful tunes such as the epic closer, "Arizona," and the near-ballad "True Love Way." A solid follow-up to their earlier albums, BECAUSE OF THE TIMES cements the Kings of Leon's place as the Allman Brothers Band of the new millennium. |
Producer: Ethan Johns; Angelo Petraglia; Angelo Petragua; Ethan Jones |
Engineer: Lowell Reynolds; Clifton Allen |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 04/03/2007 | | Original Release Date : 2007 | | Catalog ID : 06669 | | Label : RCA Records (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Runtime : 51m : 33s | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00886970377621 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (p.69)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "['Knocked Up'] is the Tennessee band's big album-opening saga, building from quiet to loud with guitar licks that sound like the Edge fried in okra, with ominous thunderclap drumroll..."Rolling Stone (p.113)
- Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Top Albums of the Year 2007" -- "[The album shows] them exploring the dynamics within garage-quartet basics with pop-sonic flair." Entertainment Weekly (p.75)
- "[T]he result is an epic wide-screen movie of a CD and the band's best to date." -- Grade: A- Q (p.119)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "[P]roper, crafted tunes and a man unafraid to sing. Good things both." Alternative Press (p.152)
- 4.5 stars out of 5 -- "The guys have never been afraid to embrace a wide range of rock , while throwing whiffs of psychedelia, spaced-out guitar noodling, good ol' boy jams and more into the stew." Magnet (p.104)
- "[T]heir once tentative Southern-rock leanings devolve into zig-zaggy fits of blues-boogie ambling, garage-crud frenzy and heavy-lidded balladry." No Depression - "[A] fierce record built on hypnotic grooves that simmer and seethe until they explode into a riot of snarling guitars and anguished vocals." Q (Magazine)
(p.87)
- Ranked #07 in Q's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2007" -- "[I]ts haunting 'True Love Way' and spiritual lead single 'On Call' sparkled with a stadium-sized epic rock sheen." Mojo (Publisher)
(p.108)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's an artful, personal and hugely human album, full of life's problems, fears, fascinations and absolutions." Clash (magazine)
(p.77)
- "Sonically, it saw their palette expand from chugging guitar riffs into soundscapes infused with ambient sounds and effects." Rolling Stone 8 of 10
Because of the Times is even better -- the band doesn't fuss with any sort of rootsy purism, which is why it gets away with retro moves that would sound soft from anybody else.
- Rob Sheffield
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| | Bio | | | Kings of Leon "I think people tend to expect a certain sound from us," says Kings of Leon's drummer Nathan Followill, "but on this record, we tried to throw them for a loop." Indeed, it's not business as usual on the Nashville-based quartet's ambitious, eclectic new album Because of the Times. Where Kings of Leon's last release, 2005's Aha Shake Heartbreak, was "a fuzz-encrusted rocket of controlled violence," as Rolling Stone put it, packed with emphatic two-minute bursts of raunchy guitars, brawny drums, and growled vocals, Because of the Times finds the Followills (brothers Nathan, Caleb, and Jared, and their first cousin Matthew) opening up, relaxing the rules, and reveling in the joys of their newfound musical freedom. It would have been easy for Kings of Leon to make Aha Shake Part II and call it a day. That album (along with its predecessor, 2003's Youth and Young Manhood) transformed these sons of a Pentecostal minister, who grew up traveling with the preacher around the rural Deep South, into indie stars in the U.S. and major rock stars in the UK. In 2005, Harp magazine called Kings of Leon "the freshest breeze to blow through the modern music scene since punk rock turned everything upside down and inside out in the late '70s." But instead of resting on their rep, the guys chose to challenge themselves. "We weren't scared to try anything," Nathan says. "I think that's the difference between this album and the last. We weren't timid at all. Every song showed us something we had inside of ourselves that we didn't know existed, which enabled us to be even bolder on the next song." To that end, Because of the Times (the title refers to an annual preachers' conference the boys attended growing up) contains Kings of Leon's first-ever album track that clocks in at longer than five minutes ("Knocked Up"), the first song with vocal effects ("On Call"), and the first one you could verifiably call an arena-rock anthem ("Black Thumbnail"). Then there's the breakneck "McFearless," the chiming "Ragoo," the scuzzy "Charmer," and the waltzing "The Runner" a song so pretty, it's damn near a lullaby. "I can sing pretty if I want to sing pretty," says Caleb, whose slurry Southern cadences were once a hallmark of the band's sound.
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