There have been great Kings of Leon albums and there have been not so great Kings of Leon albums and WALLS falls somewhere right in the middle. The band’s seventh album was also their first to debut at number one in the U.S., and for anyone that likes Kings of Leon, it’s an emotional roller coaster ride.
I’ve been a consistent listener of Kings of Leon since 2008’s Only by the Night first grazed my high-school-aged ears, and from digging back into their earlier 2000s work, to keeping up with their newer stuff, it’s clear that the band’s sound has changed a lot over their career.
Kings of Leon got their start as a southern blues / rock band, but you wouldn’t know that from listening to WALLS. The soulfulness that they established in their earlier albums has been traded for more of a heavy pop / rock vibe, but with vague traces of their original music weaved throughout. Songs like “Around the World” and “Wild” left me shaking my head, wondering why the band even bothered trying anything new instead of sticking with the familiar. But rock ballads, something that Kings of Leon has always been good at, like “Over” and especially “Conversation Piece,” left me contemplating life with misty eyes and, most of all, confused about how I felt with the whole album.
WALLS is the first Kings of Leon album that I’ve truly felt indifferent about. I hated parts of it, loved other parts, and by the end had no idea how I felt about the band anymore. So you might as well give WALLS a chance, even if you feel the need to skip the odd song here and there.
