Youth And Young Manhood

I recently saw a reel that described Kings of Leon as “Southern Fried Strokes.” I thought it was a stretch. Then i heard this album. It is not a stretch.

I feel like I should have enjoyed this more than I did. It was fine, but something just felt off for me which causes me to like it a lot less. Maybe it's the vocalists voice which I find just a little bit annoying. 2.5/5

I feel like Jeff Winger when he found out the study group was abbreviating Barenaked Ladies' name. Wow, three albums for Kings of Leon, really? They're so fundamental that we're celebrating their debut album? Call me a selfish, jaded ass, but that's too much. Best track: Joe's Head

There is a received wisdom that KoL were good in their early days, but declined when they went mainstream and got popular. This, their debut album, blows that theory out of the water and proves they were pretty bad from day one. Rating: 1.5/5 Playlist track: Red Morning Light Date listened: 21/12/23

Painfully boring. Annoying vocals and cliche instrumentation. Feels like the mix between Lynyrd Skynyrd, The White Stripes, and The Strokes went rancid in the fridge. And those were all, at best, 3s themselves. Cold garbage, solid 1.0

Very generic mid-2000s rock. I'd heard a few of these, you know, they're fine, but I can't see how they've achieved a billion streams on one of their tunes. The singer had the sound of a less committed Damon Albarn.

If you actually like rock, you won’t like this.

Go to your dad's car and find his CDs. I guaranteed you can find something better than what's in this album. You've heard this kind of rock before in bars, parties, and festivals. The lead singer has the voice and charisma of a goldfish with the band providing filler instrumentals. There's no passion to it; one song leads into the next and some do sound different (especially the pop sounding songs on here). It's by the numbers southern rock about the sad things in life. It's not enough to get a recommend from me though. Spend your time with something else.

Bland guitar rock with grating vocals. Never understood the appeal of this band and this album only made my opinion of them worse.

This album is fucking awesome, I am bias and I will fight you if you disagree.

This is the Kings I remember before they got pretty and had their sex be on fire

Is this a true 4 or does it just remind me of a happier time in my life? I guess we will never know.

I've never really been the biggest fan of Kings of Leon, this album definitely backs this statement up. I felt each track sounded very similar to the last, making my listening experience rather boring. Not to mention, I cannot stand the frontman's vocals; it sounds as if he's screaming with a bunch of marbles in his mouth. Long story, short, this album is just a bunch of distorted noise.

I think it says a lot about an album when the final track makes you want to listen to the album again. Red Morning Light is a great start, Joe's Head certainly grabs your attention, California Waiting, and Molly's Chambers are great tracks but there's something I really love about Talihina Sky.

Hands down their best album. I mean COME ON these songs are so EXCITING! They captured a raw energy that was still present in their second album, but by albums 3 and 4 had shifted into something else - not something bad, but something different and less magical that what they captured here on their debut. I watched some YouTube video the other day where they attributed the shift in sound to opening up for U2 on tour, which made a lot of sense to me. They were new to big arenas, and after listening to U2 play mid tempo rock arena jams night after night, how could their sound not change? So what they captured on this album was a specific moment in time in their development, and I'm glad we have it. I love ALL of these songs and will continue to come back to this album as I have over many years.

23rd June 2023 Listened while driving to camping with Joe and Adna outside Leicester. One of the cornerstones of my teenage years, an absolute stone cold banger.

Rating: 9/10 Best songs: Red morning light, Happy alone, Wasted time, California waiting, Molly’s chamber, Holy roller novocaine

I wondered if this might make the list. I long for the days of old KoL.

Enjoyable but his voice is just so affected…

I gave my friend some serious side eye when he recommended this album to me a while back. "Kings of Leon? Seriously?" But to my surprise, it was a seriously great album. And I still really enjoyed it on this listen. So much better than their later stuff. More bluesy, more punk rock, grittier. IDK, just better.

Dull as heck. Why recommend this one when it's neither their best nor their most popular album?

Did not like at all

Yo….this shit suuucks.

So many classics! I didn't know they were all on this album. Feels like Bob Dylan crawled into a punk basement in the UK in the 80s/90s.

ace

Really liked this album. It had me wanting more and had me going to Only By the Night. I think its a 5

Love this album

A fantastic album, been listening to it for years. Favourite tracks are: 'Red Morning Light,' 'Molly's Chambers,' 'Holy Roller Novocaine' & 'Talihina Sky'

Yes yes yes. No nonsense, full energy, distinct style. Came through like a breath of fresh air at the time. I saw them live after this album, then after then album that followed. The first gig they literally said nothing between the songs. Absolutely loved it. The second gig you could tell they hit the big time as they had a glitter ball on stage and I think they may have introduced themselves!

My favorite Kings of Leon, when they were raw, hillbilly-sounding rock. Everything later was more polished and produced. Still great, but this first album is the most fun.

LOVE THE OLD STUFF!

So much better than I expected this to be. Wow. Great rock and roll that sounds classic yet modern, and a totally different sound than their poppier 2009 smash (which I also like). His voice was awesome and this just fun to hear.

não tinha direito de ser tão bom. Quando bandas fazem um álbum simples com bom rock, não tem muito erro. Aí os cara vão e me meter umas música pretensiosa como Sex is on Fire num álbum futuro e acaba com a reputação

I like this one. Had heard a few of their songs before. Really liked this.

Oh hell yea Kings Of Leon were my band for while in the 2000s into the 2010s. Come Around Sundown was maybe the last new album I bought on CD (at my beloved MusicWorld). Wild how they were a band that didn’t really last past that era though, even though they are putting out new music and are seemingly trying to build an audience on TikTok. This album is amazing. I go back and forth on which of their four albums are their best. This pretty much keep the momentum throughout so this is a likely winner.

Like being a sophomore in college all over again.

Very nice album - I like it. Great debut!

Very very good

Nice

I don't know what my problem was with the prior Kings of Leon album we listened to but this one was totally my jam. Well, one of my jams at least. I dug it start to finish.

Fun album. Still their best.

Fucking love their early work. So many bangers

From when KOL kicked ass! So much energy. Red Morning Light one of the top 3 all time uses of a cowbell! Surely? Can’t argue with that. Caleb’s vocals occasionally scream like a mad lunatic, sometimes completely incoherent but I still love them. The album captures all of their live energy - simple party rock and roll.

Great debut album from the Kings of Leon. It is a much rawer bit of southern garage rock and much less polished than their later efforts

Love it

This was a big album for me when I was 15 so it’s impossible to hear objectively. I used to turn my stereo balance all the way to one speaker so it would cut out one guitar part (that had been hard panned to one side) and play along on my guitar for hours. I never really got the strokes comparison, in my teenage brain this was more a mid 70s credence style sound rather than late 70s post punk sound like television, that the strokes seemed to be going for. I love the live sound of the album and the short impactful guitar solos. It’s an easy 5 for personal reasons but I do wonder why it’s on the list.

fun rock album.

Don't care what anyone thinks about KoL but this album is so good

Na al die jaren blijft het een topalbum, veel lekkere nummers, echt een goede sound

01) Red Morning Light - 10,0 02) Happy Alone - 8,5 03) Wasted Time - 10,0 04) Joe's Head - 8,0 05) Trani - 8,0 06) California Waiting - 10,0 07) Spiral Staircase - 8,5 08) Molly's Chambers - 10,0 09) Genius - 8,5 10) Dusty - 8,0 11) Holly Roller Novocaine - 10,0 12) Talihina Sky - 10,0 TOTAL: 9,13 (91/100) Current ranking: 22/267 Kings Of Leon are one of my favorite bands from the early 2000s, this album is one of their better ones. "Molly's Chambers" is my favorite song on the album, and I had the opportunity to listen to them live twice.

Excellent alt rock album

Joe's Head is their best song

A wise old sound engineer once told me there are two things a great album can be made of. Great songs or great memories. And sometimes both. Well, the songs on Youth & Young Manhood are regularly great (Dusty, Trani, Holy Roller Novocaine, Red Morning Light…) but the memories are what make this an easy 5 for me. I went to university in 2002 believing nightclubs to be somewhere you went reluctantly so as not to be the only one home on a Saturday night, danced ironically to bad house music and tried desperately not to waste all your CD money for the month on sickly alcopops or horrible lager. I left in 2005 with great memories of nights at Fuzz Club and the Leadmill spent in my ripped jeans, t-shirt and tie, listening to great indie rock’n’roll and drinking (horrible AND sickly - but I didn’t care) snakebite til the early hours. It only takes the opening chords of Molly’s Chambers to transport me back. Yes, I grew out of those days around the time KoL grew out of them too and became a shit U2 tribute act without the tunes. But in those heady days of my own youth and young manhood, this was a firm favourite.

Good album, really liked all of it.

I've always really liked their album "Only By The Night" but hadn't ever gone back to listen to their first album. I liked this one too, just a little less. Sounded a bit less polished than some of their later stuff. But still love this dude's voices and the style they play

These guys started out so well. Forever tainted by the sex on fire phase. This is a good listen though

I've never heard anything from them before the Only by the night album... It is pretty different. Not bad.

Kings of Leon, what a great debut album, Youth & Young Manhood is a fantastic testament to early 2000s alt-rock/garage-rock. There are so many great singles on this that you can't help but do at least a little head-bop to. With songs featured in TV Commercials, in Movies and as part of the FIFA games soundtrack, it's easy to see why this album is part of this list. Best: Red Morning Light; Molly's Chambers Worst: Holly Roller Novocaine

I really like the description "Southern Fried Strokes" one of the other reviews mentioned - that's spot on! 😆 Fave track - "Molly's Chambers" or "Holy Roller Novocaine"

Not my fortè, but was still a good album. I can see why it is under “essential”. Gives me almost punk-folk vibes. Very jumpy, great guitar melodies and vocals to match up with it. My personal favorite from this album is “Dusty”. Great sequence.

Iets meer rockabilly dan ik dacht dat ze waren. Goed album met een paar toffe riffs

Rock

The “sheltered religious brothers and cousins who finally hear a rock album and form a band” narrative when this came out was an overly-referenced and cynical marketing ploy. But that doesn’t take away from what a great album this is. The next one is pretty good, too, but it’s a bummer that everything after is terrible. The “southern Strokes” or “punk-y Credence” labels were easy shorthand to describe them; at the time this was a really exciting and cool sound. There’s a jaggedness and also a jangle to these songs that are great, and that is missing on the blandly pleasing “arena rock anthem” albums they’d eventually make. I never think to play this album anymore. I’m glad this website led me back to it. 4.5

They were a band that came to prominence at a time where I was busy with work and schooling and didn’t have time for new music. I like what I hear here so probably missed out on something I might have loved.

“California Waiting”, “Red Morning Light”, “Trani”, “Talihina Sky” Heard Kings of Leons songs on the radio for 15 yrs, accepted I’ll never understand anything he sings without a lyric sheet It rocks and it rolls, I had a good enough time (though sometimes I got a craving for a Tom Petty song while listening) June 29, 2023

As someone that’s only listened to the biggest hits of kings of leon, this album was more interesting from the perspective of being a blueprint for the magnum opus work later in the decade that they would come out with. Outside of that, this is an unapologetically early 2000s alternative rock album that has a couple of duds but is still a fine listen. Holy roller novocaine is probs my favorite.

Not as bad as I was thinking that it might be. 3.5 bumped to 4 because I went in with a bad attitude towards the band and got humbled

Way more enjoyable than their follow-up album, inexplicably on this list. An entertaining southern rock album full of energy and a bit of grit.

Quite liked this one.

Such a solid record

A timely reminder that the Kings of Leon didn’t always suck.

Definitely the best Kings of Leon album. Such a belter. Before they got really bad, this is such a nice fresh, simple sound.

Such a great album! I wish they'd kept up with this feel more in later years. Just so much more fun! Upbeat and solid rock, but still airs of pop that would be accessible to a lot of people.

J'ai trouvé ca super rafraîchissant même si c'est une recette plus à l'ancienne Je ne croyais pas que ce bande faisait ce style 5 4.90

This is much better than the "Aha Shake Heartbreak" I received some months ago on the 1001 list. It's still not so remarkable, and it will be lost in the history of indie rock from the 2000s, but it's unfair to rate it with three stars when compared with the "Aha Shake Heartbreak." I'll rate it with 4 stars, but with some effort and considering the best songs, it's a 3.5 album.

I almost couldn't bring myself to type the name of the album into Skype. Who named this? Anyway, better than I expected. Moved right along in a sprightly manner. The band is spot on. The singer is ... a bit much. 3.5 rounding up for energy.

Who would have thought that a bunch of country boys that had been the backing band for their holy-rolling Dad's revival tent tours, would one day break out and make a dixie punk band!? Their sound has matured and evolved over the years, but what an exciting debut this must've been for them.

Garage rock. Me ha gustado. Un 4.

One of my favorites back in the day

great job then, almost last good

Overall decent album but absolutely loved Red Morning Light. First song I’ve downloaded so far! Insanely good intro to the album but nothing really matched it subsequently.

Definitely not bad. Most surprising find so far

Great first album. Shame they went down hill quickly from here and just became a commercial band focussed on money making

Ok, nothing added to the playlist

Not what I expected by a long shot. It's a cool mix of like Velvet Underground, Oasis, The Ramones, and even some AC/DC. Really dig it.

Overall it was ok

Good rock'n'roll

Thoroughly enjoyable album from the early years of this brother-band.

Overall, I liked this collection of very catchy upbeat southern rock tunes. There are one or two less compelling songs, though, and the vocals are getting a little too screamy in some places.

Liked this band a lot around 2004-05 but after that the vocals quickly became very irritating. Vocals are not great on Youth And Young Manhood either, and after the previous 1001 album (NYD debut), the album sounds rather boring. But overall this is still a very solid southern rock album of course. score in 2004: 9/10 score in 2023: 7/10.

Ik mag die gasten wel.

I expected this to sound much more like their later hit album that put them on the commercial map. This rocked harder and with more of a southern edge to it (although some of it did remind me a bit of the Strokes). Liked it enough to download.

I need to listen to this again but for now it gets a light 4 mostly based on how strange it was. Not at all what I expected. Pretty cool though.

Pretty solid album for its time. They were better before they went commercial

A lot different than I expected. Greta debut. Reminded me of Dylan folk.

I enjoyed it way more than I thought it would!

Hard one to rate. On one hand it was a simple and normal rock with a lot of country influence, but on the other hand it's quite an achievement from a bunch of teenagers. Couple nice solos, good flow of the album, perfect summer record. Well, let it be 4 stars, why not.

Wow this album was a real surprise treat. This is not the Kings of Leon I know! The “Use Somebody” / “Sex is on Fire” overplayed and overhyped pop rock band has its origins in some really jammy 70s-rock-esque tracks that I really enjoyed. I would absolutely put this album into my rotation, and I particularly loved “Holy Roller Novocaine,” which I do feel like I’ve heard before but it was great to re-experience here. I’m sad this band on this album did not end up becoming the Kings of Leon that exists today, because this shit rocked.

It stands up pretty well, but Im sure he's putting that accent on!

I had never listened to Kings of Leon before, and they were very different than I was expecting. But this album is great - I really enjoyed it.