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There’s something rather lovely about Kings Of Leon seeming to be no longer particularly bothered about what people want them to sound like. Twenty-three years into their career, the multi-platinum group and family members have reached that privileged point where they can make a record they actually want to make, rather than trying to write the next Sex On Fire.
O My Beloved, their tenth studio album and first to be entirely self-produced, sounds like a band finally giving themselves permission to do just that. It’s a personal collection of songs, almost like a bundle of letters passed between the Followills, with fans given permission to read over their shoulders. Centered on family, fatherhood and the life they’ve built together, there’s an inoffensive intimacy here that they have rarely allowed to sit so comfortably at the front of their intentions
Kings Of Leon once gave us southern rock with a gravelly and endearingly mumbled delivery. Then came examples such as Only By The Night and a decade of fans wondering when the band might return to the unique chaos of Youth & Young Manhood or Aha Shake Heartbreak. The answer, increasingly, seems to be that they won’t. And perhaps they shouldn’t?
On O My Beloved the southern roots remain, but they’ve softened around the edges, taking on a country hue. Feel The Love brings some of Caleb Followill’s gentlest vocals yet, revealing a romantic side that hasn’t always had much room among the band’s early-days hooks and arena-sized choruses. Cold Blue Down carries a slight feel of Frank Black’s Honeycomb, while Warm Company wanders into Pink Floyd-adjacent territory.
It’s not ground-breaking (but that hardly seems to be the point). In fact the second half is where O My Beloved really settles into itself as they’re simply documenting where four family members are now.
Kings Of Leon’s intimate Nashville show at Basement East felt like a fitting preview of this quieter chapter. O My Beloved belongs in smaller rooms, on quiet Sundays, with people you actually want to spend them with. This album might be the confirmation that the band’s rugged days aren’t coming back any time soon (don’t worry, we can still pop on Youth & Young Manhood to scratch that itch). But if we want Kings Of Leon exactly where they seem happiest, then O My Beloved is the ticket.
