{"id":679326,"date":"2026-11-09T08:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T08:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/679326\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T08:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T08:06:10","slug":"kings-of-leon-o-my-beloved-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/679326\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings of Leon: O My Beloved Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

If it weren\u2019t for Caleb\u2019s distinctive mid-register Tennessee drawl, one would be forgiven for thinking these 13 songs came from a different band entirely. The hard sonic pivot on O My Beloved is immediately reminiscent of similar shrewd shifts that Kings of Leon\u2019s presumptive peers have undergone during the 2020s. Mumford & Sons<\/a>\u2019 surprisingly pleasing and Dessner-ified Prizefighter<\/a> from earlier this year comes to mind, as does the Killers<\/a>\u2019 energizing turn towards War on Drugs<\/a>-isms on 2020\u2019s big-screen Americana trip Imploding the Mirage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the most curious recollection triggered by O My Beloved\u2019s often-sparse and acoustic-led tunes is Kings of Leon themselves\u2014specifically, the lovely \u201cTalihina Sky<\/a>,\u201d the closing track and sole outlier on 2003\u2019s otherwise shit-kicking album Youth and Young Manhood<\/a>. The group\u2019s recent<\/a> collaborations<\/a> with bro-choice emo-country superstar Zach Bryan<\/a> certainly nudged them further in this new direction; the moonlit \u201cPretty Thing\u201d is reminiscent of Bryan\u2019s most intimate work, while Caleb\u2019s vocals are positively buttery on \u201cFeel the Love,\u201d accentuated by a just-right dosage of six-stringed squiggling supplied by cousin Matthew.<\/p>\n

The front-porch and (current-gen indie-blasphemy alert) Hovvdy<\/a>-ish vibes are indeed high across O My Beloved\u2019s casually romantic chassis\u2014but Kings of Leon are still prone to occasionally rocking out, for better or worse. \u201cMake It Count\u201d takes the shape of a slowly unfolding barnburner while retaining a small-scale charm, and \u201cCount It Down\u201d has an alt-country shagginess that would fit nicely alongside the pack-a-day sonic trend ruling present-day indie rock. But the plodding \u201cWarm Company\u201d feels dirge-like compared to what surrounds it; the cresting and very \u201cUse Somebody\u201d-esque chorus of \u201cBlue Jeans and Diamonds\u201d undermines its own orchestral tenderness via the specter of Kings of Leon\u2019s late-2000s sound.<\/p>\n

Old habits may die hard, but the temptation to afford the Followills a bit of grace during O My Beloved\u2019s lower points remains strong. Despite the relative quality of their output across the last decade and a half, they\u2019ve remained an enormously successful band amid the ebbs and flows of modern rock; if they chose to stay the course, few would bat an eyelash. Instead, Kings of Leon are revitalized with a new and rich maturity on O My Beloved, and for the first time in forever, they\u2019ve become an entity to ignore at your own risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If it weren\u2019t for Caleb\u2019s distinctive mid-register Tennessee drawl, one would be forgiven for thinking these 13 songs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[692,93,61,60,278,514],"class_list":["post-679326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-albums","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}