Music review: Kings of Leon electrifies with new album that takes us back to the past, ‘Can We Please Have Fun’

Kings of Leon poses an existential question to listeners in the first single from their new album: Are you a mustang or a kitten? Well, turning that around: which Kings of Leon will we have now? Purring arena rockers or a nervous, untamed stallion?

Judging by the 12 tracks on “Can We Please Have Fun,” it’s time to saddle up. There’s a raw unpredictability to the band’s ninth album, a welcome return to the Kings’ sawdust-and-beer-spilled early days. Yes, we can definitely have fun here.

Brothers Caleb, Jared and Nathan Followill and cousin Matthew Followill have released a new album 21 years after their debut, “Youth & Young Manhood” and is more like their early recordings and easily their best in years.

A garage punk feel flows through many of the tracks, with the bass and drums kicking in and Caleb Followill’s voice breaking on tracks like “Hesitation Generation” and “Nothing to Do.” “Actual Daydream” has an indie country vibe, and first single “Mustang” is angular and pompous, while “Don’t Stop the Bleeding” is a sultry arena hit and “Nowhere to Run” makes your heart beat faster.

But it’s “Split Screen” that’s the album’s brightest track, a slow burner built around a guitar noodling and featuring cryptic lyrics that nod to a midlife crisis and parental angst (“hyperventilation,” “let it go.” side before breaking” and “great plan. Let’s cancel”). It’s hypnotic and easily one of the band’s best, the perfect blend of minimalism mixed with coiled power.

The album is produced by Kid Harpoon, who has enhanced albums by Harry Styles, Florence + The Machine and Miley Cyrus. This is Harpoon’s first time working with the Kings. The combo somehow hit the powerful, inflated Kings and brought them closer to the uneven sound they started with.

Lyrically, sex on fire has been replaced by crying babies on planes and hair extensions. But this is a band that even in middle age is embracing its inner mustangs, not kittens. “If I could only be so bold all the time,” go the lyrics to “Split Screen” – perhaps a prayer for them and for us.

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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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