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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The Ark, but from Temu and with more cowbell

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!

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

Ugh

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

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...

offensively insipid, meaningless stadium anthem shite

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

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%

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.

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.

Not their best but still pretty good

Album itself 5/5 - Use Somebody 10/10, plus Close, Sex on Fire, Crawl...

The transition of Kings Of Leon from the 'Southern Strokes' to arena rockers. Big choruses,epic production. I wish it still had the ragged charm of their first two records but you can't fault it's ambition.

5*

Sex of fire - is the song of Wattpad generation

Excellent lyrics, excellent vocals, excellent guitarwork, excellent melodies, but most of all, excellent drumming full of variety. An underrated album!

Songs i knew: most of em Songs i liked: most of em I done the majority of my goosing to this album in 2008, primarily in a travel lodge in Warrington because we were both living at our mars. You know most of the songs on this album whether you like to admit it or not, that being said I literally had to skip SOF and use somebody because they've been overplayed and so saturated at this point. Is it a high 4 or a low 5? Fuck it low 5 because of all the goosing.

One of my first albums, favourite band. I HAVE to give the 5 stars

Fire!

Legend

a album for eternity

For me this is the last great album they made

Biased, because this is already one of my favorite albums ever. The southern edge in the rock, the cool factor throughout. Great stuff

Yes

Ah Kings of Leon. This album took over the radio when I was in high school, primarily Sex on Fire amd Use Somebody. It's seriously hard to think of a place where these songs weren't playing at the time. I've listened to the rest of the album maybe once before this return and I got to say, it's a nostalgic trip and I really enjoyed the sound that this group brings. My new favorite from here is Revelry but I liked Closer too. It's a very clean and polished alt rock sound that isn't overly synthy like today's alt rock.

I'm just going to say it. This album fucks. Am I right?! 5/5

I love the singer's very soulful voice, full of fieriness, sometimes reverence, sometimes endearing and compassionate. A good mix of some easy riffs with soft vocals and some hard hitting cacaphonies of emotion. A truly remarkable balance across the album as well. I always felt they were kind of one-hit wonders with sex on fire, but they really earned a spot in my heart with this album.

I was not too knowledgeable about this project prior to this listen. I was previously aware of the critical acclaim of this album. I was also aware of their songs Use Somebody and Sex on Fire, both fantastic songs. Overall, I throughly enjoyed this project, however, a lot of it sounded a bit repetitive but I think it worked. The only lowlight was 17, which while isn't a completely awful song like most people on this would have you think, it's pretty bad.

5- klasyk

Goed veel klappers

Such a time and place album of theirs. Not their best but it is crazy how their lead singer cut his hair shorter for this album and everyone was like when did this guy get hot? And then they became the biggest band in the world

I hated 'Sex on Fire' when it came out. A truly overblown anthem of the sort I'm not predisposed to appreciate. So I ignored this album for a long time.A year or so later, while I was watching an episode of Casualty, they played an awesome song, which I Shazzamed, and it was 'Closer'. That was the turning point for me, which overcame my bias and led me to begrudging respect for this band. I've listened to this a few times since, and I'd say the album tracks are better than the singles, probably due to the fact they are less familiar to my brain. 'Crawl' with it's fuzz bass is immense and the last song evoked a feeling of 'Faith' by the Cure for some reason (This lot are not in the same league) which is always a good thing. Even with SOF it's getting a 5 star rating.

Been a favorite since long before, sentimental

Very good album. I like it.

Awesome album

#316. This album is way better than it has any right to be. I couldn't tell you why it's so good, because in reality no part of it is particularly any better than any thing else out there, but it somehow manages to be greater than the sum of its parts. All of the rest of their albums are more or less exactly what you'd expect from them, but somehow this one manages to be something more. 5/5: fantastic.

I’m usually quite selective with the rating feature on this website and have only given a few five stars. This means that I usually know an album really well before rating it so highly. I’ve heard of kings of Leon before but I’ve never enjoyed an album so much on a first listen. I genuinely had to stop what I was doing as not to miss a second of it. Amazing.

I noted that there are three Kings of Leon albums that once were on the 1001 list but none are now. This one and Youth and Young Manhood I found very good… and think maybe one of those could remain. I guess of those two this one was a little bit better. It was the album where I became aware of this band so maybe that’s part of it.

This just is a great album, from the first to the last track.

Standout

Great album