The Singles Jukebox

In which Claire says what you are thinking upon reading this…

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Claire Biddles: What is there left to say about Kings of Leon? They’ve graduated to existence in the same untouched bubble as Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro and Red Hot Chilli Peppers — dude guitar bands who make the same record over and over, whose popularity reaches a plateau so they never really get more or less famous. They trudge on headlining festivals and making the Radio 1 B-list every couple of years, releasing records that sell because they’ve always sold, and to the same people. At this point in their career, Kings of Leon are a strange thing because it doesn’t really matter what actual records they make — not in a frantic, desperate Taylor Swift/white noise way, but in a subconscious, bland, “oh it’s them again” way. They’ll never surprise us, even by accident. “Waste a Moment” has all the checklist moments — stabbing guitar intro, empty anthemic ‘woahs’, and a manic pixie cowgirl at the centre of it all. They might have got rid of the beards and redneck costumes years ago, but their songs are still a superficial collection of ‘authentic’ signifiers. They’re more of a symbol than a band, but a symbol for what? 
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Alfred Soto: Gulping their vocals in imitation of, what, the Wrens, and reveling in the spacious mix that fooled a few of us a decade ago into thinking Bloc Party had a cheer instead of an album, Kings of Leon make like mid ’80s Big Country by treating shouting incoherencies into a mirror like chants. 
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Hannah Jocelyn: Out with the bombastic Jacquire King, in with the equally bombastic but more respected Markus Dravs and legendary engineer Mark ‘Spike’ Stent. How the latter can go from Grimes to OneRepublic to this so effortlessly is beyond me, but the fact that both the producer and mixer have worked with Arcade Fire and Florence gives an indication of what KoL were going for. The actual song underneath the polish is not that great, basically a slightly better “Use Somebody,” but there’s enough here supporting the band that it’s possible to ignore how eh everything else is.
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Thomas Inskeep: I understand the urge to grow your music and try new directions, but this sounds like KoL just heard the Killers for the first time and thought, “Hey, let’s try that!” 
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Will Adams: You know what? College rock still ignites a feeling of nostalgia strong enough that I’ll give myself over to those moments spent on a couch connecting with people I might love or might never see again over our shared experience.
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Jonathan Bradley: I’ve given this a [5], but I like it: no I really do. In Caleb Followill’s ribbits about livewires and boyfriends running from the law, he sounds like a Brandon Flowers cursed to have been born on the wrong side of the Rocky Mountains. It’s as if his band were trying to live up to the Southern Strokes (or perhaps Southern Interpol) sobriquet that was its birthmark. Only, the only great thing Kings of Leon have ever done is wail into canyons about sex on fire, begging to use somebody, and “Waste a Moment” sounds like a nice warm-up on indie disco night.
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