Kings Of Leon deliver on triumphant eighth album

KINGS OF LEON — WHEN YOU SEE YOURSELF

The seasoned rockers from Nashville, Tennessee, return with their eighth studio album and their first since 2016’s Walls — their fifth in a row to top the UK chart. So after five years, can they do it again? I do hope so.

After a year without the heavy air and beer-stained floors of a gig to enjoy, this is exactly the right way to scratch that itch. Of course, those hoping for a collection of anthemic pop tracks, such as Sex On Fire or Use Somebody, both now a decade old, will be disappointed, but this record is a triumph.

The Bandit, already pre-released, will have you yearning for live, deafening sound, while the triumphant guitar licks of Stormy Weather and marching drums of Echoing offer an uplifting purpose. But the slow-building of A Wave, and indeed the album’s title track, also encapsulate its thoughtful nature.

There is melancholy here, perhaps a result of frontman Caleb Followill’s admission this is the band’s “most personal” work to date, but after the year that has been, it feels appropriate. If you need a lift or a moment to reflect, this album is for you. 9/10 (Review by Edward Dracott)

GABRIELLE — DO IT AGAIN

Gabrielle’s voice is unique. It is instantly identifiable, which makes it so surprising that Rita Ora, Jonathan Ross and co took so long to reveal her identity on ITV’s The Masked Singer.

Hackney-born Louise Gabrielle Bobb performed a fair number of these tracks on that show, including Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car and Falling by Harry Styles.

But look beyond that. This is more than just a crass attempt at cashing in on TV glory. From the moment she hits the first, tremulous note of Killing Me Softly With His Song, Gabrielle is in her element.

Her version of Proud Mary is more hit than miss, with a grooving, uplifting pulse. Her take on Teardrops, however, does little to improve, or even change, what was already a near perfect product. Two new tracks are perfectly pleasant and show off her revered vocal chops.

Take my advice: don’t think too deeply about Do It Again. Just sit back and listen to a British icon finesse her way through some modern classics. 6/10 (Review by Alex Green)

ARAB STRAP — AS DAYS GET DARKER

Last year’s Turning Of The Bones single was a spectacular return, John Carpenter menace over a disco beat. Arab Strap were one of the less likely acts to reform — tales of drunken misbehaviour in your 40s doesn’t hold much appeal.

The emphasis now less on autobiographical confessionals, Aidan Moffat has clearly developed as a storyteller in the intervening years and though their original skeletal sound is still there, there is more depth to the music.

Here Comes Comus! is the worthy older brother of 2003’s The Shy Retirer driven along by a surprise appearance by Doktor Avalanche. Tears On Tour sounds like an outtake from Nick Cave’s Skeleton Tree, Moffat in tears at “the Muppet Movie, Frozen, Frozen II”.

A Mark Knopfler solo gatecrashes the ending. You don’t get that with The Bad Seeds. Fable Of The Urban Fox is the best of all, a tale of two foxes unwelcome wherever they go. Obviously a metaphor for the treatment of migrants in the UK, it is a different darkness to the Arab Strap of old. Labelmates Mogwai have just had their first number one, and now 25 years into their career, Arab Strap have made one of the albums of the year. 9/10 (Review by Colm McCrory)

MADISON BEER — LIFE SUPPORT

Madison Beer may only be 21 but her debut album has been a long time coming. By the age of 16 she had been discovered on YouTube by Justin Bieber, signed to Island Records and dropped quietly with a half-finished album.

In hindsight, this may have been a good thing. Life Support is the kind of personal, layered album that would have been impossible to make in those restricted circumstances. Beer may occasionally slip into the kind of slick R&B familiar to fans of Ariana Grande.

But more often than not, Life Support’s poppier parts are tempered by her own more left-field influences. Smatterings of grungy guitar on Follow The Write Rabbit nod towards Nirvana, while the album’s first two songs draw on the psychedelic styles of Tame Impala.

Beer’s voice is a highlight, dancing between fragile on the atmospheric Blue and full diva on BOYS***. Life Support is an album made for the fans — and the naysayers. 7/10 (Review by Alex Green)

TEENAGE FANCLUB — ENDLESS ARCADE

In these difficult times, Teenage Fanclub return with their shimmering melodies and chiming guitars to bring us hope.

They are no longer the guitar-heavy outfit that emerged three decades ago at the height of grunge, beloved by Kurt Cobain, who praised them as the best band in the world.

On much of their 10th studio album, the trademark power pop has slowed, and 1960s influences are to the fore, including The Byrds and The Hollies and, on I’m More Inclined, Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Opener Home stretches out over more than seven minutes, as a lost-sounding Norman Blake sings “I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever be home again”, before a classic Raymond McGinley guitar solo.

It has been all change for the band since their last album, 2016’s Here, with founding member Gerard Love leaving over a difference of opinion on touring plans, leaving them a singer, songwriter and bass player down.

Since then, touring has been on hold, while Euros Childs, of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, has joined on keyboards, and it’ll be fascinating to see how they play these songs live if their autumn gigs do happen.

Endless Arcade is written by Blake and McGinley, with the former’s songs infused by loss and melancholy, the latter more philosophical, advising “don’t be afraid of this life” on the title track.

In 2021, Teenage Fanclub are not reliving their youth, and despite the nods to the past, they are not stuck there, still powering forward into the uncertain future. 7/10 (Review by Matthew George).