Popular rock bands often find it hard to stay on top for a long time. Few have managed to deliver quality record after quality record without losing the sparkle that first drew people in, and once that spark fades, it’s tough to recapture the flashes of what they once were. Kings of Leon may never have enjoyed universal critical acclaim, but their stadium rock has been winning over audiences for more than two decades. They still headline major festival bills today, yet there aren’t many tracks on their newer records that can stand beside their established anthems like “Sex on Fire,” “Use Somebody,” or “Wait for Me.”
That should change with O My Beloved, a tenth album that finds the band renewed in several respects—and paradoxically, farther from the large-audience, arena-ready sound that once defined them—delivering songs that deserve a permanent place in their live repertoire. The clearest example is Cold Blue Dawn, which immediately rises to the top as one of the finest compositions they have ever penned. It’s a melody-driven piece that has all the elements to enchant the masses, while also revealing a more mature side of the group, with country-inflected guitar riffs lending a relaxed Southern hue reminiscent of The War on Drugs.
This Americana cadence, imbued with a melancholy pulse guided by Caleb Followill’s deeply affecting voice, permeates the entire project. Kings of Leon consistently aim for a softer, more illuminated sonic landscape, steering away from any abrasive edges. Self-produced in its entirety, O My Beloved seeks a level of sonic sophistication that hadn’t seemed part of the band’s DNA before, and it is precisely through that shift that they manage to conjure moments of real beauty. The subtle winds that drift through the ballad The Hand, the delicate guitar arpeggios and melodic ascent of Rose, and the warm, inviting simplicity of My Whole World all offer some of the most memorable instances.
The arc of the band’s career has been marked by a series of internal frictions within a family-made outfit (it’s worth remembering that the group is formed by brothers and cousins). This new project, more than any previous, seems to indicate that those rifts have begun to fade. At least that’s the impression left by KOYSAR, a catchy mid-tempo that looks back with nostalgia and tenderness on the Followill children’s early years while also considering the passage of time. From this cut, the seventh in the sequence, O My Beloved becomes more uneven, featuring songs that aren’t as memorable and that feel a touch generic, such as Feel the Love or Pretty Thing, whose intimate mood can become somewhat cloying.
Fortunately, in the latter stretch there are still moments that deserve to be highlighted: the evolution of the ballad Blue Jeans and Diamonds, the intriguing interplay of guitars in Warm Company, and the beautiful balance between the emotional climax of Get You Down and the understated elegance of its arrangements.
Even with occasional peaks and valleys, O My Beloved stands out as one of Kings of Leon’s strongest efforts, and the best part is that it arrives when no one saw it coming. On their tenth album, the Nashville quartet proves that reinvention is never out of reach. Their pivot toward stone-ground rock-country and Americana, rooted in the city’s enduring tradition without betraying their core identity, feels utterly organic. Now the pressing question remains: is this the beginning of a new, esteemed chapter for the band? Here’s hoping that it is.
