The Followills probably had to brush some dust off their guitars when they finally got back together to release Mechanical Bull, the band's first release since the ugly onstage breakdown by frontman Caleb Followill that led to a two year hiatus. By the sound of it, it seems like the time off was good for the band. The album opens up with the lead single "Supersoaker", a classic KOL song with wailing guitars that shows the band getting back to its roots while simultaneously giving their sound a breath of fresh air. Other standout tracks come early in the album with the likes of "Don't Matter" and "Beautiful War", the former featuring one of the best solos given by Matthew Followill in years. The latter was actually a song written the same weekend as the band's breakthrough single "Use Somebody." It is interesting to note that it took two albums for that gem to resurface. The entire album lends itself to old habits and new tricks for the band, while showing continued variety throughout though ultimately not delivering monster hits that the band had been used to around the time of Only By the Night. Mechanical Bull may not live up to the expectations of the band's Grammy winning fourth LP, but there's no denying that it is a quality album by a quality band. At the end of the day, we're just glad to have the Kings back.
4/5 Stars
- Jared
4/5 Stars
- Jared