“After my grandma sees this video, she definitely doesn’t think we’re going to hell as fast as she did think we were going,” Nathan remarks in a behind-the-scenes look at the song’s music video. On radio rocker “Radioactive” (not to be confused with the so-much-worse song by Imagine Dragons of the same name), the Followills appropriate an old gospel tune from their childhoods into an exploration of their own origin stories (“It’s in the water, it’s where you came from”) with a distinctly spiritual edge. Sundown begins on a rather dreary note with “The End,” a search for authenticity in a touring life addled with fake people and temporary fixes (I know-the “playing victim” criticism doesn’t feel too far off now). It’s what came after hard lessons learned. But it’s important to note that Sundown was the result of KoL’s reckoning with their southern upbringings in a whole new way-finding peace with not only their geographical positions, but also any leftover bitterness towards their strange childhoods and complicated family. Complete with fiddles and more tender songs like “The Immortals,” Come Around Sundown was a shot fired straight into left field. In the early days of Kings of Leon, critics fully bought in to this story while the band made album after album of resonant southern rock that ranged from thrashing (see classics like “Molly’s Chambers”) to more thoughtful and subtle (“The Runner,” a softer song from Because Of The Times, is a melancholy lullaby more than anything, but nevertheless twangy and clanging) before infiltrating the world’s radios and TVs with hits like “Use Somebody” and “Sex on Fire”-songs that many early fans probably consider the end of their artistic careers, for all intents and purposes. Their story is so narratively sound it could’ve been a subplot in Almost Famous. So, in turn, the formation of Kings of Leon, one of the most riotous bands of the early 2000s, was a case of good ol’ fashioned backlash-a severe overcorrection for the boys’ stifled, southern youths.
According to the Showtime documentary Talihina Sky: The Story of Kings of Leon, the children were taught that popular music-including rock ‘n’ roll-and TV were the works of Satan. The trio of brothers traversed the Bible Belt with their Pentecostal preacher father, who staged revivals in various locations across the Deep South and remained committed to a simple, static lifestyle. Brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill split their childhoods between Oklahoma and Tennessee, while their cousin Matthew Followill was raised in Mississippi. But it may just say more about Kings of Leon and what they’re all about than any of their early favorites. Come Around Sundown isn’t seared with that angry rock ‘n’ roll arrogance KoL pursued on Youth And Young Manhood or the sad boi screams of Aha Shake Heartbreak. But, in hindsight, a dedicated listen and a little research will tell you it’s anything but. You can hardly blame critics for chastising what, to their ears, sounded like a muddy, whiny, half-assed attempt at becoming Americana singers and a precursor to sad, washed-up rock stardom. The Followills themselves weren’t doing much to help their reputation, either: It was during this era that Caleb infamously left the stage drunk during a show and never returned-the rest of the tour was later canceled. Following four sweltering, drunken, beautifully messy rock albums, the most recent of which was the superstar-making Only By The Night, Come Around Sundown was the sound of KoL going soft. 19), was panned by critics for sounding “ pandering,” “ gloomy” and altogether self-absorbed (in Pitchfork’s terms, a perpetuation of “victimhood”). Not to mention this most important line from the end of the song: “Don’t forget to love / before you’re gone.”Ĭome Around Sundown, the band’s fifth studio album which turned 10 yesterday (Oct. But when taking into account that its message is one of self-discovery and joy to young children with their whole lives ahead of them, it may be one of the best choruses Followill has ever written. “Find out what you are / Face to face.” It’s a blaring alt-rock track that at worst, may sound falsely hopeful. “Spill out on streets of stars / And ride away,” he urges during the chorus.
Life is short, and in order to fully relish all its possibilities, we’re bound to spend time grasping wildly at experiences before deciphering the most important among them.įollowill wrote the song for his and wife Lily Aldridge’s future children, Dixie Pearl and Winston Roy.
Frontman and principal songwriter Caleb Followill is actually singing about the opposite of immortality on this triumphant Come Around Sundown cut. On their 2010 song “The Immortals,” Kings of Leon aren’t referring to vampires or some other variety of death defiers.