Youth And Young Manhood

I wasted good money on this, believing an Atlanta record store display proclaiming "the best debut in 10 years", which confused me later when I heard a 2nd-rate bar band grunting out of my speakers rather than a masterpiece surpassing "Dummy", let alone "Exile In Guyville". Remains highly disappointing today, especially in the context of the two (2!) other KoL albums on this list. Wasn't all bad though - the same record store display introduced me to "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea", a genius record whose absence many decry here. Go listen to that instead!

Less grandiose and more likeable than the famous one, default indie rock from our youth.

KIngs no more *(see what I did there?)

I can’t tell if this or the other KoL album is worse.

I listened to this album a lot during a happy time in my life so this brings back some good memories. Against popular opinion here I really love it, and find Caleb's vocals quite interesting. Much better than their later albums.

Not their best

This was a really solid album. I enjoyed it a lot.

I appreciate the band's punk- and garage rock-influenced revival of the southern rock genre.

It's fine as a debut rock album. Doesn't belong in this countdown though

A good straight-ahead classic rock album. Nothing so special that I'll likely go back to it, but I liked it. 3 1/2 stars

As with my previous comment on this band. They really do nothing for me. Why do bands like this have three albums on the list ... are they significant?

Kings of Leon: Where garage rock meets Southern rock. Depending on the song, these guys sound like they’re desperately trying to channel the Allman Brothers, but Caleb Followill’s vocals don’t always have the range to pull it off. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t particularly memorable. These guys only needed one album on this list—and Youth & Young Manhood wasn’t it.

Fine if you like Kings of Leon. Some of the vocals get to be a bit out there at times (I'm looking at you Trani), but otherwise it's standard stuff for them.

This was an interesting listen. My first impression was that the singer sounded kinda 90’s and grungy, but then as I listened to the instrumentation it was reminiscent of really great 70’s classic rock. Kind of a bridge of the two eras.

Not a fan of the singing in this album. It’s ok in one or two songs but in every song? That’s a no from me. Other than that it’s a decent album. Can’t seem to figure out why this made it to the list tho. I don’t see anything special with it.

I though I would hate that album, because now they are cheesy as hell, but that first album isn’t like all the others after. They sounded like one of those British rock bands, but a bit edgier, like early Arctic Monkeys (sorry if I offended some, because I love AM, but that was my first impression) Some fillers here and there, but overall, good listen. 3/5. Red Morning Light: 4 Happy Alone: 3 Wasted Time: 3 Joe's Head: 3 Trani: 2 California Waiting: 3 Spiral Staircase: 3 Molly's Chambers: 4 Genius: 3 Dusty: 2 Holy Roller Novocaine: 3 Talihina Sky: 3

Album No. 0224 on my list. The only two Kings of Leon song's I had ever known were the ones everybody knows ("Sex On Fire", and "Use Somebody") and in my view, that was pretty much all they've ever done: obviously I was aware that they've done more than just those two songs, my mental picture though was just reduced to these two. Long story short, "Youth And Young Manhood" was entirely new to me. And different from what I had expected. On the one hand, it has some Southern Rock vibes, which I had not expected at all, and on the other hand, many songs felt much more punk-esque and much less than the generic post-grunge alternative rock stuff that I had expected. So certainly a musically interesting album, even though I have to admit that the songs themselves did not speak to me all that much. In contrast to the album's overall vibe, I found most of them pretty bland and non-distinctive. So all in all, this was an okay album, but nothing spectacular to be honest. I'll add "Red Morning Light, "California Waiting", and "Holy Roller Novocaine" to my playlist. 3/5 stars.

Why the hell is he singing like that? This is the most inept Rolling Stones ripoff I've ever heard.

God this is rough. I don't think I've run into worse singing on the entire list, and that's fucking impressing when Pere Ubu exists (At least with Pere Ubu, the intent was experimentalism). But yeah. Pretty quickly I found it boiled down to bog standard 2000's garage rock (By way of The Who and maybe a little Rolling Stones, two bands who absolutely do not deserve KoL shitting on their sound) with just the shittiest singing ever. But the singing just kept getting worse. At first it sounded like he was drunk and slurring his words. Was preparing to give it a 2 and just be done with it, but Jesus, this is rancid. So yeah. Think I'm honestly leaning towards the 1. Don't hand those out often, but fuck man. Pitchfork was being LENIENT with that 4.2/10 (Looked at their score after listening).

Such a throwback album. I realised why I never really got into this earlier. It is a combination of his voice and forgettable melodies. The first time around it was not a album that I relistened and now listening to it again I am not getting any different vibe from it. The second half is definitely better. (4/5)

Ahh, this had to be it, right? I mean, it 100% doesn’t fit any of the categories (Genre Highlight, inventive, influential, …) that would make it eligible, and it absolutely shouldn’t be on this list. No way. That being said, it does bring a smile to my face listening to it today. Not because the lyrics are great or anything (God forbid), but because it’s a solid garage rocker with a distinctive vocalist. And most importantly: memories. See, I love the first three The Strokes records, and coming from a very rural small town (in Europe), I probably wouldn’t have known about The Strokes for a long time if it weren’t for the liner notes of the Youth & Young Manhood CD. Miraculously, there was a tiny record store “downtown” with an even tinier “rock” section. Most of the CDs in that crate I could easily attribute to my father’s collection. But, you know, youth… I wanted to find my own gems. Kings of Leon’s debut sat in that crate for a good year before the owner lost patience and marked it down to bargain-bin price. And then, my time had come. I didn’t know who the band were, I didn’t know anything about the record, but I was intrigued by the cover art and it wasn’t already in my dad’s collection, so I bought it. And I loved it; listened to it over and over again. Occasionally, I’d take a look at the booklet, and there I found the band thanking another band who had recorded their album in the studio next door while Kings of Leon were making their debut: The Strokes. When it finally became time to make a trip to the nearest major city, I went to a “real” record store, bought the first two Strokes records, and promptly (well, sort of) forgot about Youth & Young Manhood. Their subsequent albums didn’t do much to win me back as a fan. But in the end, I’m left with those fond memories of listening to this album over the course of one particularly hot and otherwise utterly boring summer in a small town. Long and pointless review? I guess, you could say similar things about Youth & Young Manhood, but if you have memories attached to it, well, why not admit you kinda like it.

Early 2000's garage rock, decent.

- I like the vocalists tone of voice. - seems cool. - it gives kinda like nirvana, a bit chaotic, rock but garage - chaotic but peaceful at the same time

The Southern-rock twang gives this a little character, but underneath it I mostly hear fairly routine alternative rock. Kings of Leon sound enthusiastic enough; I just wish more of that enthusiasm rubbed off on me. Too many songs lean on the same ideas, and the rough-edged playing isn’t enough to keep them interesting. I don’t need constant reinvention, but a few more distinctive riffs or melodies would help. After a handful of tracks, I feel like I’ve heard most of what the album has to offer. Unfortunately, the album itself hasn’t reached that conclusion yet.

Album #309 Kings of Leon: Youth and Young Manhood I will admit that I came into this album with a bias against Kings of Leon, that probably originated when I was first getting into music and decided to listen to an alternative rock mix on Spotify, which contained at least 15 Kings of Leon songs, all of which scared me away from the genre for a while (thank you Pixies, for showing me what good alt rock sounds like). But from what I understand, Kings of Leon weren’t always churning out sickening hits about fiery sex and using somebody; apparently, they actually used to be a pretty respectable indie rock outfit, which for the early 2000s, essentially meant just putting on your best Strokes impression. And let me tell you, on this one Kings of Leon are fully wearing their leather jackets. I can’t dig on them too much for their Strokes emulation, since at the end of the day I love a lot of bands that started that way, like Arctic Monkeys and The Killers, and I mean who wouldn’t want to sound like The Strokes on Is This It? But frankly, this album is just kind of decent. I can’t tell whether or not I like the vocalist Adam Sandler's last dying breath thing he has going on; it definitely makes the songs feel more unique, but also it kind of shits all over the pretty good instrumentals. I can’t say I’m a big southern rock band so the fusion doesn’t really do much for me, but overall this is a serviceable rock album. There are cool riffs, catchy hooks, and some definite grit; however, none of those feel too infectious to me. Not a bad listen, but nothing groundbreaking; I’m not exactly surprised that these guys turned to churning out radio slop just five years later. Best Songs: Talihina Sky, Happy Alone, Red Morning Light Worst Song: Spiral Staircase Score out of 10: 5.5

Raw and energetic but not particularly standing out

The kind of 00s American alt-rock I absolutely cannot stand. Annoying vocals, the production is too clean and the compositions themselves do absolutely nothing for me. And apparently there's two more of their albums left on the list. Fucking hell. Okay, was going to give it two stars at first but the further I got in, the more annoyed I got. One star it is, no way around it.

2/5 kinda boring

Happy Alone just made me wish I was listening to Alone Together by the Strokes instead. Actually this whole album made me wish I was listening to the Strokes instead. Why did they make this.

Meh. Sometimes it feels like they're just giving out participation trophies for the albums they include in the 21st century. I actually like Kings of Leon and own a couple of their CDs (unc alert) but what about this album necessitated it being on this list? It got me back a little with the last three tracks which I really enjoyed, but for most of it I was just annoyed by what he was doing with his voice. Pass! Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: "Talihina Sky"

This is fine. Not amazing not terrible but also not very special.

Eh, the instrumentation on this one isn't bad, they are able to achieve a solid "this is a rock band" sound but the mumble singing really started to grate on me as the album went on. The last song was my favorite one but none of them really feel like anything I would want to listen to again. I think this barely clears a 1 for me. Likelihood that the members of this band lezzed out IMO: 2/5 I feel like these guys all head their heads too far up their own asses to consider this as a possibility

didn't really listen as in depth as i usually do but had it on in the background for a while at work today and i was really surprised how much i liked what i was hearing i was like no way this is the sex on fire guys . this is their first album too so like what happened

Way more punk than their commercial success. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.

Tynt

Kings of Leon — Youth and Young Manhood Pre: Another band I know thanks to FIFA (2004). A band I have mixed feelings for, but never mind listening to their early 00s albums. More on that later. Best: Red Morning Light Runner-Up: Trani Third: Spiral Staircase Post: Kings of Leon were one of those bands most of my teen years that was perfectly in their lane. Not too well known but well enough known that you could play their stuff and people would be like, “oh, yeah, I’ve heard of these guys.” They were a fun band to throw out there to the question, “what’s a good rock band I should check out?” An American band from Oklahoma with a unique sound that is kind of like Candlebox and Jet. I really enjoyed knowing them up until about Junior year of high school when they released the song “Use Somebody.” It was summer of one of the DULLEST music summers of my life to that point, and one of the only songs people could agree on was Use Somebody… So, naturally, the pop radio stations said, “Alright, let’s play it TO IT’S DEATH!” And that they did. The radio followed it’s death by jumping to the other hit track from the same album, “Sex On Fire,” and the radio angel of death went 2 for 2 but the dual hit death was much worse than the initial problem. From there on, Kings of Leon found its way to every crunchy granola hipster’s iPod Nano and suddenly everyone loved Kings… Leon was ruined for me until I realized the two cds I had of there’s were released prior to 2008 and people didn’t know about them as much. That was where my fandom for KoL resided and it always will. Given that, I loved this album as a teen looking for fast paced music and always will. No hipster, granola, man-bun wearing weekend hiker can take that from me! Rating: 8/10 Stars: 4/5

Not bad, interesting to hear this first album which is a bit more raw and unprocessed before they went all 'sex on fire' or whatever it was.

Hhmmm, I kinda like Kings of Leon, but... I feel like, once you've heard 3 of their songs, you know their whole repertoire. This album has not changed my views. Also, I found on a couple of the tracks, the vocals were completely unintelligible (I know, I sound like a boomer!). Anyway, it's probably a 2.5 for me, but I'll round down cos I'm a grumpy old git. So, 2 stars.

Very samey. It turns out I like them in very small doses. They've found a formula that works ... For them, but not me. It's not dreadful, but not great either. 2.5

Woah, this is so different than I'm used to hearing from their interpol/killers influenced sound. I may like it more?

I enjoy Kings of Leon's sound from their later albums. This is a rougher, more southern rock version of that sound that doesn't quite do it for me. Southern Rock isn't really my bag. Not what I would put up as essential Kings of Leon listening.

Solid, punchy, guitar-driven, Southern-tinged rock songs. The vocals are a bit slurred and mumbly in places, but the playing, songwriting, and production are solid. It's not the same (or as good) as the music that got them their first hits a few years later, but there's some unpolished talent here.

This record was okay. There were some tracks that got me moving a bit. Favourite Track(s): Spiral Staircase Least Favourite Track(s): Joe's Head, Trani, Talihina Sky

Kick ass rock and roll all the way!

Grata sorpresa. Es un álbum mucho mejor de lo que esperaba. Arranca con un temazo, tiene sus hits, ellos muy encendidos. Me gustó. 7/10

Red Morning Light, Molly’s Chambers both good. Everything else average or boring or bad.

Ok

Disappointed by this one. I wanted to and expected to like it more than I did but it dragged on and didn’t pull me in lyrically, vocally, or sonically.

Sounds just like early KoL.

Enjoyed this at the time and it holds up years later

For the purposes of this exercise, I’m pleased that I got their first album as my first album of theirs to review. This shows the nascent band to good effect, before their rough edges got sanded off. Sounds exactly like a band who had been woodshedding in their basement honing their craft, subsisting on fluorescent light, cold pizza and the occasional joint. Good sounding album, might rate even higher overall if their singer could actually sing.

Not as good as the other two albums on this list, but it is still pretty fun to listen

I really don't understand how Kings of Leon have 3 (three) albums on this list! I get it, the first two were only in the first edition and the other one was added later a then removed a few editions after, or maybe the very next one, I don't know. To me, the band just sounds like watered down versions of everything they were trying to emulate. Watered down Indie Rock, watered down Southern Rock, even watered down Pop Rock. They have a few good songs here and there, but they mostly are in one ear and out the other.

Sounds a bit like they gave a microphone, guitar and amplifier to a caveman. A little too yelly, mumbly and southern rocky for my tastes.

I walked away impressed by the spark but wishing the inconsistency didn’t keep pulling me out of the moment.

Rock.

The title of the album says it all and not in a good way. Let's divide our experience along gendered lines, since we think there's going to be something about us that's just different — except there's nothing there other than a sense of entitlement. Listening, it's just more early 00s retro garage rock. As much as I appreciate the idea of a band as a group of people in a room cranking through some tunes with guitar, bass, drums and vocals not every result of this quintessential activity needs to be platformed and jacked into the culture. If they were playing at a bar I showed up to for other reasons I'd probably turn to my friend and say the set wasn't half bad but the real shame was the lack of originality and the aping of older acts. Everything about the sound is a little too invested in recalling someone else's glory to repackage it for younger eyes and ears. A little CCR, a little Skynyrd, a bit of The Stooges and The Faces and a lot like a slowed-down and slurred MC5 cut with The Black Crowes (of all things). But not at all dangerous in their imitation. Then I'd probably leave the bar and forget the name of the band. And while I might prefer my kings to be ones of convenience rather than of leon, this record ought to engage my rock neurons and yet it fails to find the path moving neither heart nor mind and certainly not ass.

Um disco de altos e baixos mas que me impressionou bastante. Não tem muita semelhança com o que há de mais conhecido da banda, mas é bem interessante. Em alguns pontos soa como se a banda estivesse perdida, fazendo algo extremamente comum e repetitivo, porém logo em seguida a chave vira e vem músicas muito boas. Da pra destacar a virada da confusa Trani pra frenética Califórnia Waiting e a (até bem famosa) Molly’s Chambers. Um bom disco de estreia eu diria. Banda bem cultuada que tem um som bem trabalhado.

297. ok

So-so. Feels like music that wants to be known as good.

It was ok. High 2

A promising beginning before the downfall

3.5 - Reminds me of my 20s, but didn't realise how screechy and annoying his voice can be

Rock, somewhat punky/garage-ey

meow

not needed

Good debut. Not sure we need more than one album from them on the list. I prefer Only By The Night.

data log: there were consonants. there were certainly vowels. but were there words? unsure. more research needed.

I liked some of the songs. Less so when they tried to be The Strokes.

I just finished listening to this, and I don't remember a thing about it... other than maybe some uncomfortable-sounding squealing that happened at one point? My 2-star review for "Only by the Night" says it was also forgettable... but I have to imagine it was still better than this. Can't wait to hear and forget about their THIRD album on this list! Bravo, Robert! Bravo!

No way these guys need two albums. I’m gobsmacked with how lazy this was. I rated the last one higher thinking it was a pity score. This will be a spiteful score.

This list loves Kings of Leon but from what I can tell this is just a rock album from 2003 with some decent rock and roll but nothing differentiating it

Better than Only By The Night, but the dude's voice grates on me a bit. Too classic rock for me. Favourite tracks: Red Morning Light, Molly's Chambers, Talihina Sky.

People who say these guys are the Southern Strokes clearly haven't listened to The Strokes. I mean, some of the tunes are fine and enjoyable, and I used to listen to them quite a lot years ago. But this record feels long and boring, even though it's only 38 minutes long.

Wasn’t familiar with the album at all. Definitely feels like an early 00s garage band album. Musically I can hear Petty influences, the vocals favor Lou Reed. Nothing stood out as exceptional but it’s easy to see how they could have generated a following.

Man this was a hard listen.. why is this here?!

Pretty good.

4/10

Did we really need another KOL album on this list!? Less polished than their later work, but that's the one good thing I have to say. The vocals were over-the-top lazy. I like rock but this was a massive waste of time.

Go girl give me nothing

I guess it's about time I got the first of the most inessential band to have this many albums on the generator. This is almost a one-star from the first note sung. The mealy mouthed affectation is terrible. There is too much music from the sixties that no one listens to any more to ever need this piss poor interpretation. You could find new music every day from the well of what you missed the first time and never need such a mediocre revival band. May as well have put Bubblepuppy on the list. At least they had a good single. So the vocals are awful, but the guitar is also thin, like watered down broth or skim milk. The most impressive thing about this album is that it makes you almost wish it was Sex on Fire. Fuck Kings of Leon forever. I hope they feel this single ⭐️ because i am doing it as hard as I can.

I didn't expect to like this, but I certainly didn't expect to HATE it.

I get the impression that the author really wanted Kings of Leon to be bigger than they are. Like he's trying to convince us "no, these guys are actually superstars, look, THREE spots on this 1001 songs list!". Come on man, there is nothing here that sticks out. Some decent vocals, and some good energy and a good sound coming from those guitars. Other times you cant really hear anything from the curtain of noise that hangs over everything, just turn down the distortion a bit fellas. I think they tried to hit some kind of 70's rock aesthetic and kind of missed the mark. At the end of the day this really did not need to be here.

Three Kings of Leon albums? THREE Kings of Leon albums? No albums by Real Estate, Tennis, The Weeknd, Cigarettes After Sex, Aurora, Fruit Bats, Mac Demarco, Babe Rainbow, Haroimi Hosono, The Smile, Joey Valance & Brae, Silversun Pickups, Lord Huron, Sam Roberts Band, First Aid Kit, Our Lady Peace, Matchbox 20, Steel Pulse, Yebba, Digable Planets, Vampire Weekend, Bruno Mars, Sabrina Carpenter, Sierra Ferrell, Alan Jackson, Weyes Blood, Major Lazer, Daniel Johnston, Father John Misty, The Shins, Wild Belle, Sven Libaek, Creed, Kamasi Washington, Lake Street Dive, Dua Lipa, The Black Eyed Peas, Khruangbin, Young Gun Silver Fox, PJ Morton, Anna Calvi, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Parcels, Cody Chestnutt? One album by Gorillaz but we get THREE albums by Kings of Leon?!?!? THREE?!?!? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills! Put the fucking Simpsons Sing the Blues on here! Kings of Crunk has more place on this list than ANY Kings of Leon album! Is the author IN Kings of Leon? Bad list? No author… bad YOU

2/5. The 2000’s saw a massive boom in indie rock, with acts actually rising to become household names. Whether that be the strong hooks of the Strokes or the stripped back and raw bluesy epics of the white stripes. So what did Kings of Leon bring to the table to separate themselves from all these other 2000’s rockers? The answer is simple, really god damn annoying vocals. As a key example look at the track “Trani” which ends with the vocalist doing what could only be described as a really bad impression of a fantasy goblin while he attempts to shout way beyond his limited vocal range. The music is also quite basic, there is just so many better artists and albums from this era, we can leave the Kings of Leon behind in the 2000’s.

Ohhhhh yupppppp

The most average music ever. Maybe if one of the only noteworthy things about your album is that it was used in a Ford commercial, then I don't need to hear it before I die. Also, that thing he does with his voice on a couple of songs were it sounds like he is losing his voice sounds really bad and is annoying. Low 3.

Poorly mixed, punk-y, & kind of same-y.

I liked this record when it came out and enjoyed listening again today. They became much bigger than they should have and lost something the way - this is definitely their best record. That singing style grates after a while though.

Despite the occasionally constipated vocals, it's alright guitar pop. Does it deserve to be on this list? Absolutely not.

This was a fun album I don’t think ever got any popularity. I think after the Kings of Leon hit it huge with the first two albums, and then got bad press due to their family antics they kind of disappeared. This album was a really cool combination of their musical experiences and genres, ranging from rock-a-billy to blues, and a little bit of southern twang in between. There were a lot of key songs on here for me, including Genius in Spiral Staircase, which I swear there was some Dick Dale guitar work. The song Tranni sounds like it could’ve been written in the 1960s San Francisco scene. I’m coming back to this album when I have more time to really embrace it the way I feel like it should be. Bravo!

Random thoughts: * I'm not sure if I ever listened to this one all the way through before. I've been hip to Molly's Chambers for a long time and had it on many iPod playlists back in the aughts. * I always thought this sound here and on Aha Shake Heartbreak were very far from the sound on "Use Somebody" but maybe I just had a hard time with them getting so big. (Hard to break the 90s thinking of "selling out"). * Overall, great rocking songs on here and a good listen. I prefer Aha but looking forward to listening to Only By The Night Too to see if I wrote off KOL for "selling out".

You know what this isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be? The songs are a bit formless in the sense that I can't really pick out anything in particular in the track list, but there's some interesting influence and guitars in the whole thing.

5.6/10

they weren't that good when I got them 2 albums ago and they aren't that good now.

esses caras já fizeram algo que presta?

eh menos pior que os outros DOIS (!) que tem aqui tbm. ou seja, eh só HORROROSO, ufa!!!!!!

Red Morning Light - banger Joe's head - great rhythm guitar! holly roller novocaine - very nice

I'm overreacting because I thought Kings of Leon were bad and this is pretty damn good. Vocals stand out. Reminded me of this classic rock revival trend from the early 2000's, JET had their big hit this same year. This one though doesn't sound really derivative - more like a great bar band or something. Rockin. Sorry KoL, I did not know you had this in the tank.

Feels way more fun and lively than later kings of Leon albums. Not a lot that grabs me but definitely and enjoyable time listening. Joes head was my favorite. I like the sloppiness of it, gives it a vibe that’s both vulnerable and a little anarchic, much like how being a teen boy feels. I also still think the lead singer needs to drink more water