Eyebrows shot up across Dublin when the Avett Brothers sold out CrawDaddy with little advance publicity recently. Further investigation revealed the North Carolina three-piece (siblings Seth and Scott Avett and childhood friend Bob Crawford) are being hyped in the US as ‘the country-rock’ Kings of Leon, with Rick Rubin producing their major label debut.
Others have been less kind in their assessment. In the UK, where they do like to jeer at outsiders, the Avett’s have been denigrated as the ‘Kentucky Fried Coldplay’ and likened to a backwoods Snow Patrol. In fact, neither the Kings of Leon nor the Cold Patrol comparisons truly stand up. Though the Avetts have cultivated impressive mutton-chops, that’s where any resemblance with the Followills ends. Lush and meticulously assembled, their songs lack the whiskey-chugging sense of the chaotic that always ripples beneath the surface with Kings of Leon.
Accusations of channelling Chris Martin, meanwhile, are rooted in Rubin’s decision to garland the new LP in chocolate box string arrangements. Sometimes, it is true, he errs too far towards the schmaltzy: ‘January Wedding’s’ treacly banjo fuses with love-lorn lyrics (and a reference to Audrey Hepburn), with results so sweet they might induce stomach cramp.
Generally, however, the extra gloss is to the benefit of the material: the title track (and album opener) is a piano-driven epic whose full on harmonies reference Fleet Foxes without coming off all beardy and self-worthy. Later, ‘Ten Thousand Words’, sees the trio pulling of seventies Zeppelin riffola whilst ‘Kick Drum Heart’ takes a journey back to the 80s,with its casio beats and jerky rhythms.
The new Kings of Leon? Bah – the Avett brothers are far more interesting than that.