Kings of Leon, Aha Shake Heartbreak
Featured Album
An energetic, fun, and tight blend of hipster pop and Southern rock
Tight, silly and full of energy, Aha Shake Heartbreak is a thrilling rock record, an album not about art, artifice or bold intent, but an album about now. It's a concise record — like the Strokes, with whom they were so often compared, there are few guitar solos, fewer reprises and no fat. It's a guitar-rock album, pure and simple, and it's one of the finest in recent memory.
Caleb Followill is Kings of Leon's singer and frontman, and his peculiar yelp dances along his staccato vocal lines flawlessly. The interplay between his hiccupping vocals and the riffs of his bandmates is one of Aha Shake Heartbreak's most prevalent charms; songs like "Taper Jean Girl" hinge on that flirtation, shades of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards if you squint hard enough. (Bassist Jared Followill also deserves a ton of credit; he favors lines that pulse like alarm clocks, these rapid, exhilarating bursts of low energy — check "Taper Jean Girl" once more.)
Though Shake Heartbreak has become a hipster dance-party staple (put on "The Bucket" and test it out), its broader cultural relevance has been nil. In the years since, Kings have abandoned almost everything about this approach, instead opting for U2-style grandiosity. It's a shame. This record is that rare breed: an intersection of sound and style (this is, essentially a Strokes album), high and low art (a hipster take on the classic CCR chooglin' sound) and fun, guilt-free sex. This is Utopia's Southern-rock, and we want to go back!
