Kings Of Leon - Mechanic Bull

I guess we should call it a comeback. Internal strife apparently behind them, Kings Of Leon are finally returning to the business of making music. It’s been very good business indeed for the quartet since 2008’s Only By The Night. The band’s fourth, it was half a decent record – a rather too polished one at that – and far from their best. Nevertheless, the singles ‘Sex On Fire’ and ‘Use Somebody’ propelled the Followill clan into the world’s stadiums, and the ensuing tour should have been all about consolidating their position alongside the U2s and Muses of this world as a populist rock band of choice.
Kings Of Leon, however, always had a bit of mud and danger in their DNA. Sensitive bruisers who’d travelled the Southern states as teens with their charlatan preacher patriarch, theirs was a hard-living path. Perhaps that’s what got to them. Finally, the incessant release-tour-release-tour cycle they’d been on since 2003 wore them down, lead singer Caleb in particular.
Come Around Sundown arrived in October 2010, and sounded like a sleepy band pulling the drapes and wrapping themselves in a safe, reverb-drenched, FM radio rock sound. Youngest member and bassist Nathan tweeted about “internal sickness and problems that need to be addressed.” Caleb, meanwhile, struggled through shows by getting steroid injections into his throat; in July 2011, he left the stage at a gig in Dallas to “vomit” and “drink a beer”. The band did not return.
Rumours that Kings of Leon had played their last gig soon followed. Instead, they settled for a one-year hiatus to give Caleb a chance to settle down and get himself back into shape. His drinking eased off, bridges were mended, the four were itching to start work in their new studio-cum-hangout – a former Nashville paint factory – and so the break was cut short.
Now, their sixth album Mechanical Bull has arrived (boasting their sixth five-syllable title, trivia fans), recorded once again with longtime producer Angelo Petraglia. There had been suggestions that this would mark a return to the rough-and-tumble of their first two releases, restoring some grit and scuzz to their newly-soaring sound. And it’s true that, early doors, they appear reinvigorated. Album opener ‘Super Soaker’ is not their most immediate single, but it boasts both the infectious roar of the Youth And Young Manhood (2003) era and the sleigh bell stomp of Aha Shake Heartbreak (2004). It’s a powerful start. ‘Rock City’, for its part, is a gnarled country rocker with Caleb unleashing an honest if somewhat ugly lyric with a Tom Petty ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance’ cadence. ‘Don’t Matter’ is another welcome surprise, leaning in a Queens Of The Stone Age direction and somehow coming off like a give-a-shit shotgun blast of ‘80s hardcore.
So far, so good: indeed ‘Beautiful War’, which follows, is a big-hearted ballad that audiences will lap up – think Bette Midler’s ‘The Rose’ over some Edge-like twinkles – saved because of its sincerity; and the charging, distorted ‘Temple’ deploys a cooing chorus very effectively.
Curiously, the fall-off from here is dramatic, as the band seem to slip back into the bad habits that have troubled them since their 2007 high-water mark Because Of The Times. ‘Tonight’ is landfill US indie rock, made less palatable by the repetitive bark of “tonight some lover is gonna pay for his sins”; ‘Wait For Me’ is a relatively lacklustre “anthem”; whilst ‘Comeback Story’ and ‘Coming Back Again’ both feature uninspired, echoey guitars that might have been phoned-in from Laurel Canyon.
It ends with ‘On The Chin’, a 3am bar-room song given stadium rock banding. Vocally, Caleb is over-emoting where once he mumbled and hiccuped like a mountain boy. You wonder if he’ll ever turn in a thrilling ‘Fans’-style performance again. Conversely, he is engaging and direct lyrically for the first time, as ruminations on his recent struggles abound. The message is one of redemption, and of realising the importance of your roots. ‘Family Tree’ might go overboard on this theme, as the four seem to sing along happily about how much they get along: it feels a bit like a family gathering where newcomers just won’t get the in-jokes. Indeed, there are moments when it feels like Mechanical Bull’s primary purpose was to bring them closer rather than recapture past glories.
Aha Shake Heartbreak and Because Of The Times, two great works of rock’n’roll abandon, feel like a long time ago. The joy of youth has been replaced by mature contentment. How often does that bode well for a rock record? If they are intent on returning to the Southern mud, they still have a way to go.
The fact is, the background to Mechanical Bull’s creation is far more interesting than the finished product.

Key Track: 'Don't Matter'