Two years ago, the wife and I spent our anniversary in Philadelphia for a Kings of Leon concert. We kicked around my old stomping grounds, bought tees, savored the aroma of cannabis wafting from the levels beneath us, and had a grand time. I would call it about the peak of my KoL fandom. Since then, I've progressively lost interest.
It's the sort of thing that happens with bands: you discover them, pour over them, wait with growing expectation for successive releases, and then lose the thrill. They wouldn't be the only band I did this with this decade (Hi, Black Rebel Motorcyle Club), but they may have been my favorite.
And I haven't really wanted to dwell on the why, because the why digs at one of the most annoying cavils that people toss at bands: "They sold out." I hate listening to people whine about their favorite bands selling out as soon as more than 50 people have heard of them. Your favorite groups don't suck because you have to share them with people ostensibly less cool than you are. They suck because any group that a status-obsessed nerd such as you likes is bound to be awful.
None of which matters, because Aha Shake Heartbreak remains as fine an album as when I first saw the video to "The Bucket" in my then-girlfriend's apartment in Washington Heights back in 2005. At the time, I didn't think I'd ever heard so spare a guitar riff used to better effect, or so complex a drum beat used so well to complement it. In point of fact, I still don't think so. The Kings were on to something in the last decade, and if I lament the fact that their newer songs trade the hilariously bombastic wink of "Soft" for plain bombast, that only means that I perhaps wish that the stay in England that produced this album had lasted another disc or two. Much as I enjoy the follow-up Because of the Times, it lacks the tight, midnight-to-six discipline of this record, and tends to wander in the later songs.
Given the economics of rock bandom, I can hardly begrudge the Followhill's their arena success. But damned if they weren't more interesting when even the critics were dismissing them as the Southern Strokes.
Grade: L
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