Because Of The Times

This is where Kings Of Leon traded Southern-fried bar-band scrappiness for something cavernous and searching, an arena-sized reach that would define everything they became.

The seven-minute opener "Knocked Up" makes the case immediately, a slow-burning bassline circling under Caleb Followill's yowl until the whole thing swells without ever quite exploding. That patience is new for them — earlier records sprinted, this one paces itself and lets echo do the heavy lifting. "On Call" turns a devotional promise into a taut, ringing anthem, the kind of thing that fills a room the size of a hangar. Two years before "Sex on Fire" made them stadium fixtures, this record already knew how big it wanted to sound.