Listeners allow their expectations for an artist’s openness to override the chance for an artist to, actually, be sincere. We live in times where every moment, for good or ill, is broadcast and we can react immediately. For many, it’ll breed this sense of entitlement to the lives of their favourite musician, actor, or author. But when an artist opts to be open without prior notice, it still serves as a welcome shock. Kings of Leon offer an openness across O My Beloved so inherently tied to the band’s personal lives that it’s hard not to hear the heartbreak and hopefulness instilled in the band as they push forward after the tough years behind them. There’ll be more ahead, and whether they share that with us is their prerogative, not that of the listener’s expectation. So soon after calling for fun on the aptly titled Can We Please Have Fun, Kings of Leon call time on spirited partying and look deep into themselves for an album that puts the band back at their very best.
What the band has here is an earthy, bass-heavy tone to back their memories. Sentimentality wins over time after time but it’s how you use that emotional tone that matters most of all. O My Beloved is filled with instrumentally tight offerings, introspective and often peculiar readings of the past. My Whole World is a delightful start after an intro repeating the title of the album. Acoustic-driven delights with a touch of fury at where life has gone wrong for the members of Kings of Leon. But it’s in the acceptance and post-experience clarity that the band finds a message worth sharing, and they do so through some of their strongest material since their mid-2000s rock stylishness. They’ve evolved beyond that now and find themselves dealing with delicate, nuanced material. Rolling fantasies and dreams together in their youth, exploring why that was how they chose to experience the world, it’s a fascinating process found throughout O My Beloved.
Cold Blue Dawn is a fantastic offering from the band, that acceptance of reality as a puncture to the safety of daydreaming. This is strong work from a band who were perhaps not expected to do so. Caleb Followill has settled into readings on what life means without the freedom of youth. Melancholic and inspiring in equal measure. That usual run of “life is what you make of it” feels absent. They’ve still got that crucial Kings of Leon sound in there; the electric guitar heard on Make It Count is outstanding. The sort of arena rock-pleasing noise but with enough muffle on it to make an emotional impact. It’s amazing how much can be done to the emotional connection of an instrument by making it sound a touch broken, especially when the message found throughout O My Beloved is making peace with your past, even if it was a positive period. A few messages of real poignancy pass through O My Beloved. Most of those are found on KOYSAR.
Only share a message if you have one. Kings of Leon tap into their real and true desire to share their experiences with listeners, and do it in such a sincere, special way across O My Beloved. They never quite breach perfection with this material, but Kings of Leon hide a few gut punches within this latest album. Feel the Love has such a sentimentality to it, but the sharpness of Followill’s writing means it works either as a tribute to a current lover or the lament of one from the past. Either way, the emotional core is maintained, as is the case for many of the songs to follow. The latter half of O My Beloved hits a comfortable rhythm that Kings of Leon don’t look to challenge, but it makes for an instrumentally strong experience. Followill’s moody vocals are a nice touch for the art-rock stylings of Blue Jeans and Diamonds and Warm Company. A welcome change of pace for a band whose evolution as emotionally charged rock players is a pleasant one.
Discover more from Cult Following
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
