Fun, you say? In these times of war, famine, economic strife and queues in pubs for seven-quid pints, Nashville’s space-country glowerers Kings Of Leon make for unlikely Michael McIntyres. But while we’re unlikely to find them doing 10k runs dressed as sideboards or being interviewed by Little Ant & Dec to promote this ninth album, they have emerged from the weighty musings of 2021’s When You See Yourself – wildfires, marital fracture, addiction, anxious youth – cautiously coated in silver lining.
‘There’s a war outside, we should all get high,’ Caleb Followill recommends as the cosmic funk groove of Nowhere to Run kicks in. Later, images of ‘panic on the streets’ are couched in the vital and excitable tones of early 00s riot-rock on Nothing to Do. It’s misleading to suggest that Followill is in ebullient and optimistic mood here; these are songs of confusion, bewilderment and anxiety. But as abstract hints of falling bombs, civil unrest and ecological collapse are peppered around songs titled Ballerina Radio and Rainbow Ball, alongside moments of youthful nostalgia and romantic security, there’s a distinct sense that life, love – and occasional lark – must go on amid the chaos.
