Their richest, most textured effort yet.
With WALLS, Kings of Leon have struck a nice balance between the garage band passion of their early work, and the large scale bombast that made them stars.
They’ve done what comes naturally – and also what they’re very good at. To put it simply, it’s clear that they like big, possibly-a-bit-cheesy choruses, and so have written 10 of them.
Here the Followills sound mature, relaxed, and locked in with one another.
In a nutshell: we’ve pretty much heard this Kings Of Leon album before, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
No wheels are being reinvented here, but while much of Walls marks a return to the Kings sound of eight years ago, there is some experimentation.
The result is radio-buff rock & roll that could spoon between One Republic's genre-splicing power moves and the Head and the Heart's folk-pop uplift.
Those who long for the days when Kings Of Leon were an enthralling and joyously shambolic rock band will probably be disappointed again by their return.
WALLS is not the comeback it wants to be — and while these 10 songs might have hoped to trumpet a resurrection, in the end they sound more like someone yelling from inside the coffin, trying to convince anyone who’ll listen that they’re still alive.
With WALLS, Kings of Leon have further strengthened their foothold in formulaic arena-rock.
WALLS mostly finds Kings of Leon back in that mode of offering up fast-food “whoa-oh” singalongs and guitars that chime as distinctly as wallpaper.
The Tennessee boys that used to hang on your back, shouting in your ear with whiskey on their breath have grown up, and now preach wound-down wisdom with an arm around your shoulder. But the charm wears thin over the course of a full record.
I think this album broke me as a reviewer. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard something that resides so squarely in the middle of the road, or that fades into the background so quickly.
It lacks the immediate bombast of either that last LP or 2010’s ‘Come Around Sundown’, but neither is it straight-up boring.
Kings of Leon are what they are, their walls stand tall enough despite glaring structural defects and the fans will likely indeed be 'happy'. For now.
The hooks on WALLS are surprisingly hard to come by for an album this ostensibly geared toward radio.
'Walls' is one of those polished late career releases that really has almost nothing going for it; the writing has stiffed, everything sounds hyper commercial despite the lack of any special songs, and any mystery the band in question once possessed has now totally evaporated.
In true latter Rolling Stones fashion, an album released to support a tour where three songs from it will make the setlist (at most).
This album successfully makes you feel absolutely indifferent about it. It is the definition of generic pop rock.
Wow, people are particularly harsh on this album - I think WALLS (aka We Are Like Love Songs) is a step down from Mechanical Bull but it's still pretty underrated, with some great singles. Waste a Moment is up there with their best (and I can see why it's by far the highest rated track); it's a fantastic lead single and opening track. Reverend is also an enjoyable tune contrasting an upbeat sound with lyrics about death, even if I'm mildly annoyed by how often I confuse the title with Revelry. ... read more
1 | Waste a Moment 3:03 | 92 |
2 | Reverend 3:54 | 77 |
3 | Around the World 3:34 | 67 |
4 | Find Me 4:05 | 87 |
5 | Over 6:10 | 82 |
6 | Muchacho 3:09 | 71 |
7 | Conversation Piece 4:59 | 75 |
8 | Eyes on You 4:40 | 79 |
9 | Wild 3:39 | 78 |
10 | WALLS 5:29 | 86 |
#32 | / | NME |