Did Rolling Stone really give Jonas Brothers’ A Little Bit Longer four out of five stars and only give Kings of Leon’s Only by the Night three out of five stars?
Part of rating an album must include how an album sounds in comparison to other new music. To read the review for A Little Bit Longer tests not only the reader’s grasp on reality, but also one’s “bs” meter. It’s a five paragraph swirl through Disney tabloid drama (note that Rolling Stone also owns Us Weekly). I’d like to highlight probably the worst bit of music journalism in a long time.
Jody Rosen writes: “The boys’ fantastic third album is steeped in the fuzzed-up guitars, three-part harmonies and cotton-candy choruses of Big Star and Cheap Trick. Power-pop die-hards awaiting the genre’s commercial saviors must reckon with the fact that the messiahs have arrived … and they’re a Disney boy band.”
Fantastic third album? The messiahs have arrived? Jody, do you have a crush on the band? Was that you sitting in the first row at TRL last week? When are you getting your braces taken off?
As for the Kings of Leon, Rolling Stone does the band the honor of a one paragraph review. Given RS’s laughable grip on rock, they call Kings of Leon “bland and overly ponderous.” Enough of their crap.
Last.fm posted the full album, Only by the Night, to stream before the release next week. My thoughts…the album is one of the most enjoyable and listenable rock albums of the year. The hooks are the best of their career. Caleb Followill’s singing has never been so memorable. The bass lines are punchy. The solos are silky smooth. The band has never sounded more like a band, producing a wall of can’t get it out of your head sound. For the most part, the tracks fit together for an album that is equally wily as it is well-groomed.
Though Kings of Leon will not benefit from my nod of commendation, at least they received a review they deserved. Take a listen to “Sex on Fire,” “Use Somebody,” “Manhattan,” “Revelry,” and “Notion.” This is the sound of band taking chances. Rolling Stone and Disney can hold hands over their new messiahs in their gluten-free, organic, incovenient truth of a world all they want.
3 years ago