Kings of Leon
When You See Yourself

The Kings Of Leon needed a definitive sound synthesis to achieve a completeness that seemed elusive in their recent studio efforts.

The previous "WALLS," released three years ago, was a good album but perhaps too clean and crystalline to adequately accompany Caleb Followill's phenomenal voice; the even earlier "Mechanical Bull" often convincingly pushed the accelerator but perhaps suffered too much from a certain sonic schizophrenia.

With the help of the reconfirmed Markus Dravs at the controls, the Followill Boys succeed with this new "When You See Yourself," which moreover arrives after a double climb to number one (UK and USA) of the previous album. The new album is indeed a work that roots itself in the band's glorious past, while also eyeing a present that speaks a more composite language but is no less effective for it.

The first notes of the semi-title track open a compact and complete album with few decisive accelerations (the two beautiful singles "The Bandit" and "Echoing," with the former set to delight fans of the first two unforgettable albums, while the latter gives no respite even for a moment with a hammering riff accompanying yet another impeccable performance by Caleb) and many tracks that take ample space to tell their stories (rarely dropping below four minutes in length, as in the beautiful "A Wave").

The chosen musical language is always appropriate, and all the fittings form a perfectly oiled and functioning mechanism: whether they propose something that draws from the now rich past of the Nashville four, as in the case of "Golden Restless Age" and "Stormy Weather," or look with curiosity toward a hypothetical future, as in another extract "100,000 People" - which offers a keyboard somewhat in the style of Eno - the Kings Of Leon captivate like they haven’t in a long time and give us a beautiful picture of varied yet coherent colors.

And it's of little importance whether "Claire & Eddie" abuses a bit too much of a certain insistent country revival, or if "Fairytale" closes the discourse a bit too hastily (even if with the right, soft, and whispered atmospheres); KOL are decidedly back among us, and they’ve done so in great style.

Best track: Echoing