Safe As Milk

(I’m on a mission to catch up the Heavy Rotation write ups. Short and Sweet is the order of the day - ed.)

Here’s my thing with Kings of Leon: they make 2-3 left field choices over the course of an album and I am consistently turned off by them, initially. Because I dig the band I keep trying and those same off-putting moments are the ones I end up loving the best.

Becaus of the Times was no different for me on the first listen. The album starts with a 7-minute song (’Knocked Up’) about how he got his girlfriend pregnant and her parents hate him but it doesn’t matter, because “we’re gonna have a baby”. Young foolish love. I get it, but a slow, 7-minute builder just doesn’t work for me as an album hook. Then it’s followed on the album by a tight, sub-3-minute howler that is probably as polarizing a song (technique-wise, listen below) as they’ve put out. I am way way way into this whole album, now, but it took some work.

If you’re into the band’s other work, ‘Because of the Times’ is worth however long it takes you to get into it. This is a top5 album for me from the 1st half of 2007.

“Charmer” is, for all intents and purposes, a Pixies record. I can totally hear Black Francis in those howls and the driving bassline is smacks of classic Kim Deal. I’m not surprised anymore that this is my fave song on the album. Enjoy.