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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

In one ear and straight out the other, yawn.

Modern classic

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

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.

Rock's last classic. A masterpiece

Love this album.

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

no skips

A classic of the early-2000s indie scene

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

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.

Ooft. Those opening few bars of Closer transported me right back to high school. Kings Of Leon really blew up in the late 00s and epitomised the alt-rock sound of that era. With four songs from this album making Triple J's Hottest 100 for the year including "Closer" which didn't even get an official single release goes to show the pull of the Kings at this point in time. Best: Crawl; Sex On Fire; Use Somebody Worst: I Want You

I really like this album. Good indie rock and some very catchy songs. 5/5

Awesome

Actually a great album front to back

My personal guilty pleasure.

5/5

very melancholy album

4.5

Great songs one after another. 4-5 stars but I’ll round.

This album was everywhere. It had loads of singles. I had heard it before but never a proper listen outside of the singles. It's one of the albums that is just good and will age well (Hot Fuss, Jagged little pill, etc.). Stand out tracks - Closer - Crawl - Sex on Fire - Use Somebody - Revelry - Be Somebody - Notion

My first “who are these guys?!” and a core music memory. Leans a bit Arena Rock but probably their peak.

I used to listen to this album on repeat when it came out. Holds up well.

Heel strakke plaat! Top immers en perfect afgemixt

Love a good flash back to my latest teens/early 20s. This album fully resonates with what was going on my life. Kings of Leon were just beyond good, so genius. This album is there most popular, but all their albums before this one belong on this list, no question!

I know. I'm surprised, too. I thought this album was only "Sex on Fire" but, it turns out, it's absolutely full of jams. The opening track, "Closer" is such a vibe and the album just... keeps slapping all the way through "Cold Desert". I tried to find a reason to dock it a star but even the fact that "Sex on Fire" is SO overplayed couldn't kill the album.

Incredible! One of the best! First half of the album is much better than the second one, but this album definitely needs to be in the list

God I fucking LOVE this album. Restored my faith in rock when it was released, after a few years in the swirly whirly jazz world. Hearing Use Somebody one night blew me away, and reminded me of Joshua Tree-era U2 without all the pompous grandiosity affiliated with Bono and Co. And this glorious album does not sound dated at all. A masterpiece.

My favourite album when I was 15. Know every song. Best song is Manhattan or Be Somebody.

Good album!

apsolutni klasik

Crear un ambiente muy envolvente. Siento que tendría que haber conocido este disco mucho antes. El cantante usa un quiebre vocal muy bien hecho y lo hace propio de su estilo. Es como si estuviera por desafinar en cada momento, pero lo sabe utilizar muy bien. Album super recomendado!!!

Oh man this album is great. Closer just grabs you straight away and by the time Manhattan kicks in you wonder do I like this particular song or am I having a dopamine rush. Certainly after my second listen I was keen to listen again. Faves from today are Crawl, Sex on Fire, Use Somebody, and Notion but there's plenty more in second place. That's 2 out of 2 5-Star records from KoL for me!

Ça me désole mais je suis obligé de mettre 5

I didn't want to leave this challenge. It brought back wonderful memories of living in Nashville & the excitement there was knowing this was a local band making it big. There was so much buzz in the air & a bunch of us knew or had seen Kings of Leon play before this album. Electric times. Musically, this is fantastic rock album. If someone were to ask me what the 2000s sounded like, I'd play this. Sex on Fire immediately followed by Use Somebody is a strike to the senses. Love this album & will revist it often. 4.5 stars

This album rips

Loved this album when it came out, and it still holds up for me today. Strong indie rock from start to finish. No dips. Another surprise 5 for me.

I forgot how much I enjoyed this album.

Only by the Night - Kings of Leon This is one of the best rock albums of 2008. So many hits off of this album, but some of the deep cuts are even better. I hope their onstage and offstage antics have gotten better. We don't need "The American Oasis" band. I think my favorite song on this album is "Manhattan." Caleb Followil has such an aching in his voice as he sings, "I said who are you? Don't matter who you are. So we dance all night and dance all day. I say." and this minimalistic guitar comes in and it's the most beautiful transition and melody. So much emotion in this song, from the vocals to the melodic guitar. This album was right before their fame took off and they got distracted. It's a tight rock album that exudes sex and shows just how good this band is. 5/5

Proper good 00s throwback. Sex on Fire was all the rage on the airwaves at the time (ca. 2007-08 I think) but this album has some other great tracks too

Awesome album

I have to say I sighed when I got another Kings of Leon album. But boy was I wrong. I loved it, and I loved the music the infinity playlist offered up afterwards.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’m gonna begrudgingly bump up to a 5, because I think it’s not a 4, but it just doesn’t feel like a 5. Make no mistake; I think this album’s fucking great. This is incredibly cool to me – I only knew Use Somebody, which I still think is an all-timer of a track, but I’ve never really heard any of the other songs surrounding it, and up until Track 6, everything was blazing hot, all cylinders firing, all engines go, felt like one of the easiest 5s I might give. And yet, of those final 5 tracks, I was only really digging the last 2; something about Tracks 7 through 9 sounded really good, but they never really put the full package together in the same way that the first 6 tracks did. Who knows? I might just be overreacting to an underwhelming finish; those first 6 tracks hit like crack, man. Absolute bliss for me. Even those last 5 tracks are still good listens; the soundscape never lets up a single time during this album, and you can’t say that Caleb Followill can’t sing his ass off, because he was belting like a motherfucker on this. I’m sure someone will get more enjoyment out of Notion or I Want You than I did (17 is an actively mediocre track), and they don’t take away from the rest of the album at all. It’s a great listen, and it deserves to be on the list; kind of conflicted about bumping it up to a 5, but I really do think it's just too good to only give it a 4.

loved!

This one had me singing in Revelry.

Great

Sex on Fire suffers from the Somebody I Used to Know curse of being a great song that got overplayed until bloody and unrecognisable. This is a massive album.

One of the major releases of the late 00’s. The Followills really nailed what everybody seemed to long for at exactly the right time. Caleb’s vocals are extremely emotional and powerful, Jared’s bass playing is playful and Nathan’s drumming is always a breath of fresh air. There’s a chance this might be dated - I might still be too much in love to notice it. And when you close an album on “Cold Desert” (a go-to late night favorite of mine) I have nothing bad to say.

amazing album. liked every song, but one. its edgy, melodic and has a sexiness to it.

Great album

Standout

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

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.

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.

#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.

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.

Very good album. I like it.

Been a favorite since long before, sentimental

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.

Liked it, especially their hit "Sex on Fire".

The album tracks for the most part were as good as the smash hits. Enjoyable listen.

It's easy to mock Kings of Leon and the whole mid 2000s era of Alt Rock, but I do have to admit this is actually a pretty decent album. The hitters, while overplayed, still hit and some of the deep cuts are better than they get credit for as a band.

(On first song) These vocals kinda good though? Wait I thought this had the quality of the top song but it ain’t? This album might actually be good. I now know why it wasn’t the top song. Turns out Sex On Fire, despite the name, is a very well known song. Still good though. Yeah this is at least 4 stars. Multiple so close to being bangers. Man just one banger and it would’ve been a 4.5. Oh well, 4 stars. Also man the first song wouldv’e been so much better if the backing track didn’t last the entire song. Its distracting at best.

Reminds me of college

I think three of the first four Kings of Leon albums were all on this list and have subsequently been removed. Funny enough it's their one before this (#3 - Because of the Times) that is my favorite. Still, this is probably my second favorite and where I first discovered the band. I remember when Sex on Fire was all over the radio and I was not interested at first. And then I really listened to it and I loved it. Still do; it never gets old for me. Some of the other songs have got old/tired - Use Somebody is one I now radio surf when I hear it and 17 was always a bit of a reach. But I still love how they open and close the album with Closer and Cold Desert (both eerie and awesomely haunting). And Notion still rocks every time while I Want You is one of those great cheeky songs with an off-kilter beat they seem to have on every album. It's not a perfect album but it's a solid piece of rock during an era where rock was dying (and has continued to die). These guys were a breath of fresh air and this album was massive. I don't think I can bump it up to a 5 because they had already started to blaze a trail in the early 2000's with their first two albums, it's just that North America wasn't paying much attention (England was). But in 20 years when we look back and ask what did we define as rock after 2000-2002 and where did rock go by 2020, this is one of those albums (and bands) where we can say, ah there it is. I'm saving my 5 for album #2 (Aha Shake Heartbreak) where they first really figured out their great sound and were still pretty new.

I knew two songs on the album, which was 2 more than I was expecting. Even without the 2 tracks, I dug the album. It was pretty good. Both "Closer" & "Crawl" worked as opening tracks. They gave you a pretty good idea of what you were in for for the entire album. Then you have the one-two punch of "Sex On Fire" and "Use Somebody". Both pretty good songs, but having them right after each other, thae makes a pretty solid block of music right there. The singer is... limited, let's put it that way. He seems to be yelling more than singing, but at least he's in key. I didn't detect autotune, so that's a start. There wasn't a song on there that I would throw out, but because of the singer's limited range, some of them did start to sound the same. (Although "17" was a little creepy.) So if someone asked me where to start with the band, I would probably say this album would be your best bet. It has two of their biggest songs on it, so it should give you an idea of their sound.

KoL is an under-rated band in my opinion. Especially with this album, they forged a pretty unique sound that is somehow fun and sad and rocky and poetic all at the same time. And they're consistent - a few tracks off this were "hits" but they all sound equally great.

Now finally a Kings of Leon album that deserves to be on there because it's actually good music!

Vocals reminded me of the lead singer of Highly Suspect and Kaleo. Like the synths and instrumentals sounds almost experimental with traditional electric guitar mixed in. After finishing I recognized a lot of the songs featured, but never knew the band.

It's that slow vocals vibe lounge singing vibe. Definitely makes you feel like you're sitting in the rain with flowers in your hand watching your high-school sweetheart kissing the quarterback of the football team vibes.

Multiple listens confirm the strengths of this effort and the band itself – fully committed vocals in a relatable classic rock vein, slightly melancholic undertones to even the wildest songs ("Sex On Fire" sounds is sung like the singer is in fact frightened by the fiery-ness being described). It all works well, if there are only a few tracks that truly jump out to distinguish themselves. Still, seems like this was a real rock and roll band at a time when the market needed one. Indeed, one is pleased that they achieved considerable commercial success, and would even go so far as to say they deserved it.

An album that was everywhere for a while, and rightly so, as it is great! Falls just short of a fifth star, partly cos it is a bit samey, partly cos I prefer their rawer earlier stuff.

This album defined early 2000s rock Sex On Fire and Use Somebody are bangers. Let's forget about 17 tho...

Heard before: 'Sex on Fire', 'Use Somebody'. First track in. This is better than I expected from the (alright) singles I knew. Second track in. Both excellent! Favourite songs: 'Closer', 'Crawl', 'Revelry', 'I Want You'. 8/10.

Ah it's a tough one as it was such a big album back at sixth form. Real nostalgia for that period of time and I did bloody love it. I haven't listened to these songs is years and I don't know how to feel about it! Now knowing where Kings of Leon came from, they changed their style a lot and made it much more pop and ballad. I don't respect Biffy Clyro or Coldplay for doing the same thing. I can't deny though I did enjoy the relisten and some of these hold up. Manhattan for example! Sex on Fire and Use Somebody don't ... Agh. 4 stars for nostalgia impact. Don't tell Luke (who kept crying to turn it off when I played this)

Un super album rock assez reent pleinde jits . Un bonne ecoute que je n’aurais jama8s fait fait sans cette liste. 4.85

I feel like a big ol hypocrite writing this. Yesterday I lamented that the trappings of 2000s of mainstream rock held back a Bruce Springsteen album. The difference with Kings of Leon’s Only By the Night is that, uh, they’re a 2000s band so they get away with it? But also this is the best I’ve ever heard them, right down to the assorted bells (“17”), background choirs, *compression* & millennial whoops (“Use Somebody”). I wouldn’t say the rough edges of Youth & Young Manhood needed to be sanded over, but it works. It just works here. HL: “Sex on Fire”, “Revelry”, “Closer”, “Notion” September 12, 2023

Possibly a 3.5 but did start to grow on me a bit

good

Great album some full songs favorites were revelry, notion I want you, and be somebody.

I always preferred Aha Shake but I can see why people love this. Crawl will always be a fave!

I liked the album! I had heard some hits before but not the whole album. I could listen to this again so it’s 4 stars.

Has it all. Love this album!

This album is great. As close to a 5 as it can get.

I adore this album, but it's definitely picked up the 4th star based off of nostalgia

Even though I’m sick and tired of hearing Sex on Fire on the radio all the time, the rest of the album is pretty good!

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Crawl, Use somebody, Sex on fire, Notion

Nostalgia heavy for me. A couple of duds (wtf 17?) but overall a decent rock record. Closer will always be a standout.

Wish the instrumental were more forward in the sound

More enjoyable than expected tails off in end