| Rating |
Summary |
|
| 3 by Rolling Stone |
Free from their strict Pentecostal father, Kings of Leon's Followill brothers (plus cousin Matthew) spent their first two records establishing themselves as horny Nashville youngsters with a neo-g... |
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| n/a by www.guardian.co.uk |
The dreamy 'Cold Desert' is the perfect maudlin end to this short, sharp, 42-minute, no-filler album, revelling in every miserable blues-rocker cliché as Matthew's guitar goes all shoegazey and then briefly threatens to turn the whole thing into a 'Purple Rain' wig-out. |
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| n/a by www.ew.com |
Throughout Only by the Night, frontman Caleb Followill wails forlornly about cheap thrills and true love while his two brothers (and a cousin) bash
out spooky, raw-edged riffs that rarely go where you expect them to. |
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| n/a by www.sputnikmusic.com |
As it is, it's a very fine record from a band who are seemingly growing in stature, confidence, and ability by the day. |
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| n/a by www.uncut.co.uk |
The four players are able to design the tracks in architectural detail, each part locking into the rest with unerring precission, and this tautness keeps the album from sagging through its most challenging stretch. [Oct 2008, p.78] |
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| n/a by www.spin.com |
On their fourth album, the Kings of Leon still rule with a messy hand, applying rough magic and blurry, slurred imagery to their swashbuckling rock. |
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| n/a by NME |
Like their last, Only By The Night is front-loaded with world-beaters but then gradually ebbs back to more interchangeable moments. More than ever its strengths, when it succeeds, later become its weaknesses. It tries a mite too hard. |
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| n/a by Billboard |
There are a few head-scratchers,....but singer Caleb Followill has never been in better command of his beyond-his-years howl, and he's got monster hooks and melodies yet in his bottle of tricks. |
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| n/a by www.blender.com |
When Caleb evokes God's wrath on the crucified U.S.A. or describes lost-highway lonelines, the batter-fried U2 atmospherics and portentous Dixiefied grunge makes his worry as real as Brimstone. [Oct 2008, 2008, p.80] |
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| n/a by www.avclub.com |
It's clear they're ditching the indie legitimacy for the stadium-packing, lighter-waving crowd. Thankfully, it's a fully earnest aesthetic, and the record showcases a variety of songs without being crippled by the indulgent filler of albums past. |
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| n/a by www.slantmagazine.com |
While their ambition for evolving remains admirable, their apparent failure to understand their own strengths is troubling and undermines the promise they showed on their previous efforts. |
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| n/a by Pitchfork Media |
Surely, we can do better for the platonic ideal of a rock band than four guys gunning for a spot rightfully inhabited by My Morning Jacket but instead coming up with the best songs 3 Doors Down never wrote. |
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| n/a by Popmatters |
Where surprises could be found with each previous release to give even casual fans something to appreciate, Only by the Night delivers an even serving of Ritalin coma stadium rock destined to raise their prime age demographic. |
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| n/a by www.courant.com |
It's the mark of a great band when each new album is better than the one before it, and with Only by the Night, Kings of Leon shows once more just how great a band it has become. |
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| n/a by www.musicomh.com |
This is an album which feels like it was made quickly, not because of artists reaching a terminal velocity of creativity, but to take maximum advantage of an audience who may not be there this time next year. |
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| n/a by www.villagevoice.com |
Through headphones or computer speakers, Caleb's echoey vocals just don't ring credible. Their Black-Crowes-go-new-wave choruses are exciting enough, but they feel unearned after tiresome, oversung verses. |
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| n/a by www.adequacy.net |
Its a tight, very good album and although itll have its unfair share of detractors, like the rest of the bands albums, it will shine no matter what. |
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| n/a by www.prefixmag.com |
Essentially a funhouse mirror of 2007's far superior Because of the Times, Only by the Night stumbles under the weight of its ambitions by lacking the songs necessary to support them |
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| n/a by www.cokemachineglow.com |
I have enough faith in this band to presume theyll eventually see Only By the Night for what it is, as a fourth album hiccup that fails to play to their strengths. |
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| n/a by uk.launch.yahoo.com |
Only by The Night will undoubtedly sell bucketloads but there's no escaping the fact that creatively, Kings Of Leon have stalled. |
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