Only By The Night

This album is really heavy soft rock. Perfect for the dentist office. None of the songs have definition and all sort of just bleed into each other. Honestly this sounded like one song with breaks throughout to me. It's not really bad or anything. Just nothing ear cathing.

Ummmm wtf is that song 17

I can’t decide which of these reviews to publish, so I’m leaving it up to you, faithful reader, to decide which of these you think is the most fitting. Consider it a “Choose Your Own Adventure” style review: A.) Alt-Rock for people who find My Morning Jacket “too aggressive”. B.) Move over Fleetwood Mac, the middle of the road has a new King. C.)_STOP_CALLING_MAJOR_LABEL_BANDS_INDIE_ROCK_

I heard it

I am trying to be kind and generous but this is really obnoxious. I did NOT have to listen to this before dying.

The opening track, Closer, is very good. I honestly hate Sex on Fire. It just gives me the impression of a bad STD. Blech. The other single I knew, Use Somebody, was ok. Fun to sing along with. 17 fell flat - can grown men stop singing about teenage girls? The rest of the album was bland, generic and sounded a lot of the same. If only the album had remained as strong as its opening. This is a 2 for me.

When it came out I would have given it 1 I hated it so much. Now that time has passed where I'm not forced to listen to it I can concede that at least the songwriting is quite good. It came at the end of and to me represents a full stop to the mid 00's era of bland mainstream indie bands. Now leave me alone and don't make me listen to it again. 2+/5

This was on REPEAT in the late 00s, but it really is kind of bland. The opening 4 tracks are stellar, but it quickly turns quite uninspired. Only exception being the vocals and somewhat inventive drums/percussion work by two of the Followills.

This transports me back to the embrace of the passenger seat in my friend D’s old BMW, his decisive right foot, and the enveloping thump of his speakers drowning out the desperate sounds from the car’s trunk as we cut through the North Circular. Salad days, I can still smell the arterial smog. Returning to this record and its forgettable title, I realise this period was marked by rock bands being integrated by producers into a glossy, trip hop-style synthetic aesthetic that favoured few. The famous, silly fiery sex song, the immediately succeeding Use Somebody and a handful of sections aside, this record does not move me - the tunes are not strong enough to hold up the poppy production, which mutes the pleasures the band's rock might otherwise have brought. Had I the time and inclination to listen to music I don't like, I could plot a line from NIN to KoL. I have not heard a record that happily sits in the midpoint of glorious synth and hairy rock. The drums are upfront and fall like a big dead fish thrown onto a slab. Guitar feedback can sound savage or, more rarely, haunting, even bittersweet; here it’s a precision-engineered component inserted with the badge “here’s rock”. A rock song sung by a man that begins with "Oh, she's only seventeen" needs to follow up with deft writing to avoid sounding creepy, which doesn't happen here. Perhaps I just miss that old BMW's sound-system, now distant.

Went into this with no expectations. Emerged with no opinions. The Lynyrd Skynyrd Coldplay variant? About as much effort as I can muster

i can't believe these nerds have three albums in the book. imagine picking any of the three over bloc party's debut album or any new pornographers album from the same time. jesus christ. this is pisses me off.

offensively insipid, meaningless stadium anthem shite

Not even the band's mothers have listened to all three KOL albums, you don't need to either.

The first two songs weren't bad and I thought this would be a big step up from Aha Shake Heartbreak (what a terrible album name), but then it hit the two awful singles and it never really recovered.

In one ear and straight out the other, yawn.

Not the worst album I got here, but seriously, a 3rd Kings of Leon album here is way too much, don’t you think? I still can't stand the singer's voice, for a start.

this shit is so ass. If you listen to Sex on Fire in your free time, I'm judging u rn Will I listen to again: 0%

Yoo this is on here? Instant 5 "Use Somebody" has such a special place in my heart.

One of the last if not the last big crossover rock album hit. Famous singles, widely accessible compared ti previous works, strong production. This nailed it with this one.

The stuff guilty pleasures are made of, but if it's a pleasure, what's there to complain about?

3.1 I was unfortunate enough to be starting second year of uni when this came out, so I heard Sex on Fire and Use Somebody once or twice a night for a good six months. They're actually not bad songs, by my god after seeing a fresher belt out "someone like meee" with his eyes closed for the 200th time it starts to grate. Anyway, as usual, don't really get KoL, always seemed quite overrated. It's fine, it's just extremely mediocre. This album definitely played it a lot safer than the earlier ones, to the point where a few of the tracks were actually quite dull. Not bad though.

There is so much religious righteousness in the lead singers voice that even Jesus would quickly hit the skip button. That lazy mumbling he does at the beginning of Revelry is the epitome of everything that I despise about vocalists of that time. It just sounds like an attempt to cover up the fact that his voice simply sucks. Sonically and songwriting-wise, these songs are fine, even good. I don’t fault the rest of the band here at all. I could’ve potentially come back to this had the singers voice been anything less than overwrought and unbearable. Even still, I just “can’t even” with Christian themed music and its intentions. It gives off the eternal “If you’d just accept Jesus into your life…” vibes. Piss off!

Kings of Mehsville, more like. While this album is by no means unlistenable (well, the vocals do come dangerously close at times); I struggled to identify what makes it must hearworthy. I gave it a few playthroughs throughout the day, and even then, I don't think I'd be able to hum back nor positively ID any of it by tomorrow. In a word: forgettable.

Ugh

Being a musician ruins this album. Kings of Leon use every trick in the book to try and build tension. Everything goes quiet, tom-toms are hit, guitar and bass are picked with staccato, but every time it either leads to a flaccid guitar 'solo' drenched in reverb or the song just decides to end abruptly. Caleb's vocals constantly sounding like he's on the edge of crying or orgasming (maybe both) doesn't help. I'm not the target audience, but the music isn't sexy enough to pull it off. Kings of Leon are not Deftones.

Hits me right in my millennial feels. Hard for me not to love this album as it was playing everywhere during a fun time in my life, all of these songs take me back to riding around on dirt roads smoking weed and trying to get my older brother to buy us beer. Hard to looked beyond that and give an honest review of the quality of music. So, five star based solely on nostalgia.

A classic of the early-2000s indie scene

no skips

This is a great album by a talented group. I enjoy pretty much all of Kings of Leon music.

Love this album.

Rock's last classic. A masterpiece

Love, love, love this album! Brought back childhood memories ❤️

Modern classic

This album came out at such a flashbulb-memory-filled time of my life, so listening again was an experience in time travel. I loved these guys when this album first dropped, especially the whisky voice of Caleb Followill. I was anticipating slinging an easy 5 stars their way but this re-listen, in 2026, it fell a little flat. Not sure I can explain why.

This should have been the only KoL album on this list, because it seems to be their only good album. Really like this style of rock with some pretty interesting guitar parts. You know it is a good album when the two radio hits that are on it are two of my least favorite songs that I heard on here.

This list does not need 3 Kings of Leon albums on it holy hell. Brandon is punching air right now. This is actually an album by them I'm familiar with, I actually really like the first 4 songs or so. It's just alright from there on, but Closer definitely deserves its flowers.

I really enjoyed this listen. Hadn't listened to the Kings of Leon in probably 15 years or so and surprised by how much I remembered practically every song on this album. The first half of this album is banger after banger. Really solid 2000s indie rock

Expected to hate it because of how overplayed the singles are, but it's listenable!

I like the hits when they are on the radio, but something about listening to them all on an album started to grate on me a little. His voice started to grate me a little and it just felt really generic and blah after a while. If these brothers hadn't gotten in a fight on stage I don't see them making this list.

3 1/2: Listen, Sex on Fire and Use Somebody are soaring rock bangers carried by the crackly cry of lead singer Caleb Followill. I had this album back in the day and I never really dug deeper than those 2 tracks. But I was glad to revisit this record as this week's assignment. The rest of the album is pretty middling, but their are a few other standout tracks including Notion. I've lost track of the band. Are they still even making music anymore?!

I liked this more than I thought I would. I Rolled my eyes when I saw this pop up. It didn’t really feel as it went anywhere and I dont feel compelled to listen to it again. I will consider it a passing neutral score.

Kings of Leon have the distinction of being the only band with three albums included in various editions of 1001 Albums, all of which were subsequently removed from later editions. If that isn't a measure of an over-rated but ultimately irrelevant band, I don't know what is. On this record, they shift their ambition to trying to be the Southern Strokes to being the Southern U2. And they crank out a competent early 21st century stadium rock sound in the mode of U2 with lots of guitar effects and over-dubs, big choruses, vaguely abstract lyrics, and grand gestures. But I find it mostly crushingly dull. This album was a monster hit here in Australia (11x platinum or something ridiculous like that) and I struggle to work out what my compatriots saw in this. Interestingly, this was a big hit in Australia, New Zealand, UK, some parts of Europe, but the band (and this album in particular) is regarded as a bit of a joke in the US. I'm not quite sure what to make of that. It's not terrible and it is a reasonable length (although still I find Caleb Followill's vocals grating by the end of the record). But wildly, wildly inessential. 2.5 stars, rounding down

Sort sounds like if Steve Winwood fronted a mediocre Cage The Elephant tribute that got too big for its britches.

The Ark, but from Temu and with more cowbell

I’m slightly ashamed that I’ve never listened to this album, considering they are a local band. When I first started listening to this one, my first thought was “this feels a little dated“ and then I realized the album is almost 18 years old. So I apologize to them for that thought. Having said that, this album is kind of mediocre. There are a few big hits on it, but most of the deep tracks are pretty repetitive. They rely heavily on the same tinny sound, repetitive guitar chords, and are banking on the lead singers soulful vocals to carry them through. I picked up another two or three songs that I had not heard before and will listen to again. The rest, not so much. And can we please stop writing nostalgic love songs about minors?

It's ok. Which is bad for music. It doesn't stand out. The hits are recognizable, but the rest of it is rather bland. Two songs does not an album make. My Rating: 2/5

Stay away from children. 2.

Only By the Night From Aha Shake Heartbreak: – All the elements are there for something I should like - southern rock style guitars, garagey drums, but its generally a bit nondescript. It’s not objectively bad, it's just not as good as you feel it should be and kind of passes by without anything to make you sit up and notice. Whether it’s the strength of the songs or a general lack of energy I’m not sure. So overall a handful of good songs and a nice sound, but in the main pretty forgettable but fine. I think that makes a 3, a 2 feels a bit low. – That mainly holds true for this one, there’s not much I can add really, it’s all competently made and isn’t unlistenable it’s just not that satisfying. Although I did really like Crawl, as that had a nice dirty, swampy groove and muscular weight to it, and is a bit more interesting and memorable than the rest including the big singles. Realistically I’m never going to listen again so I’ll go for a 2. 🌃🌃🌃 Playlist submission: Crawl

Oh come on. Really, this has had that many streams and probably no doubt as many actual units of sale back in 2008. What is it that people get from this? What have they been listening to that's lead them to think this is good. It is an out of body experience as you literally know what is coming next in each song, ah here we go the drummer is going to double time on the snare, the singer is going up a notch, a bit of chunk a chunka guitar, and then some wooo whoa whoa wooo whoa slightly echoey backing vocals. Then a bit of chumpy chumpy guitar and then the solo, voila! And the heavy man heavy man lyrics, there had to be a I'm looking around what do I see type thing. Weird, so weird. This is just straight out weird, did good pop music never happen, am I set adrift in a fantasy world, I've been reprogrammed to not like the best music like this? Dunno, something is going on.

Christian rock made by sex guys

just one of the most terrible things i ever heard in my life

What a bad hang. This music sounds like a pharmaceutical ad. The album is an insincere and misguided mess, & listening to it makes me question whether or not I'm a functional member of society.

I think a lot of us liked Kings of Leon for about 5 minutes because of "Use Somebody". I'd forgotten just how bad the album is. This is the album with the STD song. With two songs with near identical titles (see Be Somebody). With the song 17 (it's exactly as wrong as you think it will be).

čobančad uzvraća udarac! ovog puta polazi im za rukom da zvuče još lošije nego na prvom albumu. dosta bi ovoga bilo...

To find out there are THREE Kings of Leon albums on this list?? Sure won’t think about all of the albums missing from this list whose spots are being filled by KINGS OF LEON

Only By The Night is easily Kings of Leon's most popular release as it has 2 tracks with over 1 billion streams each. Now with that being said, even with this album's extremely high merits that does not mean this album is good by any means. I think Sex On Fire and Use Somebody will go down as the only Kings of Leon songs I can genuinely get down with as they both have this catchy aura to them and some really fun Rock moments in them that really hit with myself and millions of others. Everything else on Only By The Night is very forgettable and bland, but still better than whatever the fuck the band was doing on their debut album. I really tried again to give Kings of Leon a shot here but they are just so mediocre and uninspired that I can't help but nearly fall asleep listening to the slop this band puts out. This is once again nowhere near a "must hear before you die" status in my eyes.

uniquely insufferable, initially I would have been tempted to call it grocery store music but that's way too unkind to grocery store music. Caleb folowill's horrible, histrionic vocal performance at least lets the album substitute for ipecac. vocals aside, all the music is limp and uninspired, but the exact right blend of inoffensive and generic rock subgenres to guarantee success in the dire 2008 radio landscape while instantly vanishing from the minds of anyone who hears it. Use Somebody is a grating, saccharine slog only made worse by how overplayed it is, which is proof that we are in fact in hell. the absolutely superfluous and eyerolling fade in/out on Cold Desert is the final nail in the coffin for an album that's already been rightfully forgotten by the general public

If beige paint had a sound this would be it. That 17 song is disgusting.

Horse shit. They toured with U2 and thought 'we could make lots of money.' This is not music made with creativity or connection in mind. It is concerned with making money. The worst thing about it, is that it worked. People bought this shit in their millions. Cheers, people.

I really like this album and don’t really get all of the hate reviews.

Fabulous.

This album is such a banger. Interesting lines, cool drum parts. Bass drum gets a bit too active for my taste at times but a great record all around. 5

Probably one of my favorite albums of all time! Every song is a banger and flows so perfectly from the first note to the last! Also remember when my buddy first showed me these guys! Blew my mind!

Good

Includes the iconic "sex on fire" and "use somebody" - all the songs were super solid, great album

Loved most of the songs

2009 me was a big fan of this album.

Cracking opening song. I know all these tunes! Super horny, dirty guitar licks. Amazing sound. Love this so much more than the other album on this list.

!!!!!! !!!! no notes !!!!!

Honestly, you forget how good this album is and before you know it you haven’t skipped a song and your and play 2 all the way through again.

Awesome lp!

Mood/Vibe: the last of the 2000s indie rock and roll Standout Tracks: All of them? No skip album. Sex On Fire & Use Somebody still deserve their flowers but Cold Desert & Notion have been added to the rotation. Replay? Immediate replay to really let the album sink in. Even better the second time around. Opening/Closing Songs: The opening track is Closer and what a great introduction. We get a clear understanding of the vibe of the album, funky synth sounds mixed with that heavy guitar that permeates the album. Solid open and a personal favourite. The closing track is Cold Desert. I love the fade out and fade back in. A last moment, a last hurrah. A triumphant ending to a triumphant album. Notes: The opening song gives me Imagine Dragons vibes. This album was owned by my mother I believe? Perhaps dad, but either way it was an album that got plays in our house in the late 2000s/early 2010’s. As a result this, listening to this album was washed with brilliant nostalgia mixed in with an adult appreciation of music and what makes it so fucking good. What a brilliant album to begin this project with. 5 stars for memorable, enjoyable, nostalgic, guitar-heavy, late-2000s masterpiece.

A really good album that is completely new to me. The singers voice and the space they leave between the singing in a lot of the songs is great. It feels very thoughtfully done. Definitely a band I want to listen to more in the future.

If I could give this negative stars I would

I actually listened to this multiple times it was very good

Objectively a great album. It flows well from start to finish, with some solid highs along the way. “Sex on Fire” wore out its welcome out in 2008, but “Closer” still stands as the best track. 4.5/5 stars.

Not quite as weird and wonderful as Aha Shake Heartbreak but still a tremendous voice and spectacular sound

I have great memories of 2008 when this album released. There hadn't been a good "rock" album that really spoke to me released in a good bit. Then out of nowhere, this hit and it absolutely slapped. 17 years later, it still slaps. Just straight up, unapologetic rock. I wish I could hear it for the first time again.

Love this album

The first Kings of Leon album I heard in full and in my opinion their magnum opus, Only by the Night is an absolute achievement from which they learned the wrong lessons. This is unfortunately also their last good album. The pitch shifting pedal use on the bass in Closer to start the album already tells you this is different than before. Sex on Fire is a great lead single and nobody saw Use Somebody blowing up the way it did. Just a great rock album.

As a fan, this was their album that sprung them into fame and acclaim. It was a well rounded, well composed album

great listen. enjoyed the driving guitar, melodies, and vocals.

An homage to my angst filled teen years

5 star on nostalgia alone. Listened to this album so much when I worked at a record store in college.

That's some good 2000s indie that's aged super well. That was a great listen

I’ve heard of Kings of Leon before, but never really dove into their music. I think listening to this album has convinced me to do so. It was really great to listen to with some recognizable tunes and some things that should’ve definitely come up in my algorithm before.

Wow. This album is just perfect and i remember how groundbreaking it was when it came out. Always a treat to listen to.

9/10…blues rock / indie

Great recording. I have this on my Playlist.

Awesome live saw them last year.

Standout Songs: Closer Sex on Fire Use Somebody Manhattan Notion Be Somebody Absolutely beautiful album by one of my favourite bands. I have this album on CD and I absolyely love it.

I just about like it enough to give five stars, although the album does seem to lose it's way a bit after the first four tracks.

This rocks. One of my favorite bands and my favorite album from them. If you don't like this you have a big ol' dump in your pants. Get off your pretentious high horse, nerd. Best Song: Revelry Rating: 9.5/10 (Near-Perfect) Stars: 5/5

Finally, an album from the 2000's that people actually listened to. The experimental nonsense was getting tiresome.

Pleasantly surprised

A banger front to back.

Sehr viele Hits! 17 underrated, closer banger

Love this.

Nice sound, some cool basslines, and softer but not boring. A solid band playing near their full potential.

A solid album! Fun instrumentals and vocal work. It sorta fell off by the end, but was still fairly enjoyable. 'Use Somebody' was my fave.