The latest issue of the Full Pelt Magazine is here, and you can download your copy for free below!
Volume 36 features our cover stars Kira Mac and When Rivers Meet as we explore the New Wave of Classic Rock, including reviews of The Treatment and Attic Theory. We also have reviews of the new releases from Kings of Leon, Indoor Pets, BIG SPECIAL and BLACKGOLD!
Our News Report has all the latest music news including live announcements from Hundred Reasons, October Drift, Blake Cateris, Brothers Osborne, Kris Barras Band and Monster Magnet.
Plus all the best new releases including Joanne Shaw Taylor, Masters of Reality, Jarki Monno, Like Moths To Flames, MOSKITO, The Commoners, Troy Redfern, Bad Wolves, The Dead Daisies, Been Stellar, Daily J, Welly, Marisa and the Moths, Battlesnake, The Home Team, Royal Republic, YONAKA and Travis!
Finally, we round up the latest additions to our ‘Discover’ New Music Playlist including All Ears Avow, Failstate and rlyblonde.
KINGS OF LEON – CAN WE PLEASE HAVE FUn – ALBUM REVIEW
Kings of Leon are in the position many mega-selling artists find themselves in. They’ll forever be shackled to their back catalogue and the weight of expectation to replicate past success. That burden however equally can become a gift. Their career is stable, they will forever be able to sell out the biggest venues across the world, and therefore it perhaps doesn’t matter if they continue to produce hit records.
Well, for Kings of Leon they have linked up with producer Kid Harpoon for their ninth collection as a band. In advance the band have talked of their positive experience working with the Brit and have classed ‘Can We Please Have Fun’ as the music they’ve always wanted to make. Perhaps then those shackles are now off!
Given recent output has been somewhat hit and miss from the Followill tribe, it’s interesting that on this album they lean into their more methodical side. Slower but perhaps more meaningful the sonic ambience of the record is far removed from their bigger rockier hits with an almost shoegaze-esque feel creeping across these tracks.
That perhaps could be the influence of the Harpoon kid or perhaps just an expansion on their own garage rock roots but it ties the album with a cohesive albeit basic thread. The band have commented in press for this record that not everything has to be turned up to 11 and in fact there is nothing here really turned up to even an 8.
This album is all very easy going, which isn’t necessarily a criticism but you kind of wish they would step it up at least once or twice. This record though, despite its title, isn’t designed for the dancefloor or even the festival stage.
It would however suit a long, sunny car ride somewhere and ultimately you suspect the album title is more self-fulfilling. Hopefully, the band enjoy this record because they’ve earned the right to make music for themselves, just as long as those hits continue to fill those stadiums!
The latest issue of the Full Pelt Magazine is here, and you can download your copy for free below!
Volume 25 features our cover stars The Mysterines as reveal details of their sophomore album. We also review new albums from The Snuts, Gen and the Degenerates and Blackout Problems, and we review The Zutons live in Norwich!
Our News Report has all the latest music news including live announcements from Liam Gallagher, Kings of Leon, Bullet For My Valentine, Trivium, Alice Cooper, The Pearl Harts, Greta Van Fleet, Royal Blood and Radar Festival!
Plus all the best new releases including Kasabian, Kings of Leon, Paul Weller, Frank Turner, Linkin Park, Sum 41, Daytime TV, Crossfaith, The Cruel Knives, TheCityIsOurs, Between You & Me, Susan Santos, Raven Numan and The Struts!
Finally, we round up the latest additions to our ‘Discover’ New Music Playlist including Major Moment, Caroline Romano and DeadWax!
Kings of Leon – When You See Yourself – Album Review
Anyone looking for Kings of Leon to reinvent the wheel on their eighth studio album should probably temper their expectations. Whilst ‘When You See Yourself’ may be the bands first record since 2016, they haven’t spent the intervening years perfecting a new sound.
This is Kings of Leon doing exactly what Kings of Leon do. The good thing for the band is that what they do is create music for the masses, and they are very successful at it. Single ‘The Bandit’ gives you a flavour of what to expect from the album. It’s standard Kings of Leon stock. It’s trusted stock that people will buy in bulk.
A once very exciting young band, Kings of Leon have reached a level of success that is unattainable to all but a very select few. The fact is the band could rest on their laurels and simply rely on their back catalogue. It should therefore be applauded that the band, albeit sporadically, feel the need to get creative.
Whilst remarking that they haven’t broken the wheel, it should be noted they that also haven’t “phoned it in” as it were. This is a very Kings of Leon record, but it’s also a very good Kings of Leon record that will sit well within their back catalogue.
Kings of Leon – ‘Golden Restless Age’
There are plenty of moments on the album that remind you just why you fell in love with the band. ‘Golden Restless Age’ in particular manages to stand out as just as good a song as the band have produced.
This is more unoffensive output from the band. Stick it on in the car on a Sunday afternoon leisurely drive and let Kings of Leon remind you who they are.
