Because of the Times

Submitted by Richard Norbury on 14 February 2013 - 10:43pm

Cover:

Artist:

Kings of Leon

album-ID:

a_19

Nationality:

USA

Year:

2 007

Release-year:

0000

Num-of-tracks:

Track-listing:

Knocked Up*Charmer*On Call*McFearless*Black Thumbnail*My Party*True Love Way*Ragoo*Fans*The Runner*Trunk*Camaro*Arizona

Length-in-mins:

Nominator:

Bean

meeting-ID:

m_9

Now-num:

Spotify-URL:

0sSDv7Je3Qvav8FYzP7osU

Grooveshark-URL:

Because+Of+The+Times/1153205

Short-title:

cosOfTimes

nominator-ID:

u_14

Meeting-date:

Tuesday, 4 March 2008

MusicBrainz-URL:

20de4fa6-4cf7-31c1-b8f2-d5c46b754d07

Wikipedia-URL:

Because_of_the_Times

Spotify-link-type:

album

Metacritic-URL:

because-of-the-times/kings-of-leon

Discogs-URL:

Kings-Of-Leon-Because-Of-The-Times/master/123924

Allmusic-URL:

because-of-the-times-mw0000478745

BBC-URL:

93gb

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review-form data

guest-list data

108

109

117

reviewers-IDs data

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92

reviewed by

Richard Norbury
74

reviewed by

Neil Hornsey

Rock and Roll. Turn it up and groove.

9-11

1

A pleasant surprise, for a sell out rock band I didn't expect so many good songs. Some tracks are rock monsters while others have welcome subtle touches. Fans and Trunk show what they are capable of producing when they get gentle and groovy.
55

reviewed by

Matthew Baker

Not really up to Glastonbury headline status

3

Can imagine this going down well at festivals, but they seem to have lost their Kings of Leon-ness, such as the blatant Pixies rip off. The guitars are abit more big adn seems designed for a larger stage, On Call is a good song built on a nifty bassline. There's nothing wrong with it but it's just a little bit oridnary for my tastes.
40

reviewed by

Jon Taylor

Close, but no cigar - yet

1-3

An album that on paper I should like, but which somehow eludes me. Not sure if it's a lack of imagination in the music, a failing of production on the album or my old ears, but I will persevere a little longer.
21

reviewed by

Glyn Lewis

Rock-by-numbers for the masses - derivative, simple and anthemic

5-8-9-11

1-2-4-6-7

The arrangements on these songs sound very simple and basic. This wouldn't have to be a problem if there was some kind of musical development or there was something to play off against - a vocalist with character, some manic playing, just something to break it up. The production is very slick and sharp and there is a good mix of approaches to the sounds but the influences all seem to be worn too heavily. There seemed to be touches of Big Country, Bruce Springsteen, the Doors and most evident were dollops of U2 grand anthemic stylings. And Charmer, the pitifully awful Pixies rip off, which includes Frank Black-esque squeals, is plain embarassing and shameless. This may well be the worse song I have ever heard.

Trying to put that aside, this is probably a body of worked made with half a mind on the live arena and I felt the album suffered for that. To be fair there were some good tunes on here and nice production but moments of genuine originality were few and far between and were certainly outweighed by the annoying bits. Those annoying bits are gnawingly, crudely simple, cynically insipid and with vocals delivered by a feeble Joey Ramone wannabee.