The Singles Jukebox

Shanties and bandits…

[Video]
[4.29]

Katie Gill: In non-COVID times, my church had an annual 4th of July picnic. Without fail, the playlist was the exact same every year: someone’s dad’s Spotify playlist. There was Mellencamp, there were the Rolling Stones, there was Skynyrd, all that music that you listen to and think “ah yes, this was a playlist curated by a 55-year-old man.” The one saving grace of the playlist was that every year one or two current songs made it on the 4th of July playlist, as if the dad who curated it was saying “see? I’m hip!” without straying far from his established comfort zone. Those songs would always be dad-adjacent, if not outright dad — think “Blurred Lines.” This is a long way of saying that if we had the 4th of July picnic this year (which we probably won’t), this song would be that “see? I’m a cool dad!” pick. It’s amazing how it feels so much like calculated, inoffensive music to toss around a football to.
[5]

Jeffrey Brister: What if Kings of Leon were drained of every bit of personality? Almost nothing would tell me that was who was performing, aside from Caleb Followill’s distinctive yelp cutting through. Which is a shame, because even for a listless post-punk shuffle, “The Bandit” has a remarkable amount of layering and texture in its production. I just wish it was powering a more distinctive and interesting song.
[4]

Will Adams: You know that they could use somebody. Someone like a better mixing engineer.
[5]

Thomas Inskeep: It’s nice to hear commercial, mainstream rock that doesn’t suck, but that doesn’t mean I ever need to hear this again. In baseball, I believe this would be referred to as a straight-down-the-middle double.
[5]

Harlan Talib Ockey: Assuming this was created from pieces of other Kings of Leon singles by a particularly intelligent AI. MuseNet’s doing amazing things these days.
[3]

John Pinto: This one is fun because Kings of Leon is a rock ‘n’ roll band and “The Bandit” has the word “band” hidden in its title. Neat!
[3]

Alfred Soto: Many listeners pine for the old verities when confronted by the novel, hence this lumpen example of finely tuned AOR London broil. Verities can work: I get off on the guitar chimes and the organ lines too. Caleb Followill needs some speed, though.
[5]