Today I’m continuing to look at Kings of Leon’s discography. This will all lead to a quite special post!

The band’s third album, Because of the Times, was released in 2007. It takes the gritty Southern rock style of their first two albums and expands upon it – adding echo and reverb-laden guitars and more atmospheric textures. However, it still rocks as hard, if not harder, than their first two albums.

The album opens with “Knocked Up.” It is a seven-minute track that does go on a bit, but is kind of a half ballad/rocker. It features a “woah oh oh” vocal section that always gets the crowd going at gigs. This is followed by “Charmer,” which features frontman Caleb doing a weird screaming thing with his voice. I wouldn’t usually like that, but it sounds so bizarre for them and the music behind is still absolutely brilliant.

This is followed by “On Call,” a song that the band still regularly plays. It features a massive bass groove and rollicking guitar solo, which manages to work with the slightly more atmospheric and anthemic sound.

*the band also began cutting their hair shorter in the second half of 2007

This is a theme of the album for me: hard-rocking yet melodic. “McFearless” features a monster fuzz bass sound, wah-wah guitars, a cool snare drum pattern and is also pleasant – same with following song “Black Thumbnail.” “My Party” is a more pure hard-rocker on the album, but is also very groovy and funky. I mean it contains cowbell, how can you get any better.

The album then starts to mellow out a bit, yet still remains energetic. “True Love Way” is an anthemic ballad that would set the blueprint for the rest of the career, “Ragoo” sees a U2 influence creeping in (all the while retaining a Southern quirkiness) and “Fans” is an anthem with acoustic guitars intertwining with electric. Even slower tracks “The Runner” and “Trunk” have a good groove to them. The record closes with “Camaro” (another hard rocker) and the ethereal ballad “Arizona.” The tracks all feature distinct catchy motifs – as with most of their work.

After this album came the dark wilderness.

Yes, many would consider 2008’s Only by the Night to be the moment the band “sold out.” The album contains the ubiquitous mega-hits “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody,” which brought the band a new level of stardom. The album is basically the more arena-ready and atmospheric side of the preceding album, with much less of the harder rock grit of their early material. However, even though I wish there were a few harder rockers on the album, it’s a nice change and their Southern twang is still present for me.

Tracks like “17” (even if the lyrics are a bit dodgy by 2026 standards), the rip-roaring guitar solo of “Notion,” the quirky groove of “I Want You” and the gnarly riffs of “Crawl” and “Be Somebody” show that their early spirit is still in there. The opener “Closer” is an unusually minor-key song for the band, but still has a nice beat and rocks hard.

As well, I don’t think “Sex on Fire” is a bad song even if it’s overplayed. I don’t see how it’s that different musically to an earlier track like “The Bucket.” “Use Somebody” is slightly more annoying with the vocal inflections, but is there even a rocking guitar solo and cool bridge. I’m not so keen on “Manhattan” as there is no harder rock edge to it all – I think Japanese bonus track “Beneath the Surface” could’ve replaced it.

Finally, their next album, Come Around Sundown, came out in 2010. It didn’t match the success of Only By The Night and none of their albums since have. However, they are still a pretty big modern rock band. It continues the less hard-rocking sound of Only By The Night, along with having a more relaxed Southern flair than their earlier work. The artwork really matches the music – it sounds like the soundtrack to a barbecue on a beach!

This is seen most clearly on tracks like “Mary,” with its ’50s rock n roll shimmy, the funky grooves of “Pony Up” and “Birthday,” the reggae of “The Immortals,” the country of “Back Down South” and the horns on “Mi Amigo.” I’m not a massive fan of singles “Radioactive” and “Pyro” – I would skip both honestly! They don’t have the harder edge of their earlier work, although “Pyro” live is an incredible experience. There are also some nice ballads – “The End,” The Face,” “Beach Side” and “Pickup Truck.” The album is also a bit slower than their other ones, but “No Money” is as fast as their earlier songs, albeit with a swing rhythm.

That concludes this next part of the Kings of Leon discography review, before moving on to their mild resurgence of recent years. As I said, this will all lead to a very special post! Here’s my tracklist order for Come Around Sundown to give it a rockier feel. See you next time.

1. The End
2. Mary
3. The Immortals
4. The Face
5. Back Down South
6. No Money
7. Beach Side
8. Pony Up
9. Birthday
10. Mi Amigo
11. Pickup Truck