Can We Please Have Fun＜限定盤/Indie Exclusive/Apple Color Vinyl＞

Kings of Leon have always been something of an album rock band, capable of summoning radio hits but just as likely to craft raging, throaty anthems that carry you along on their bloodshot emotions. Its a vibe that works best when they keep things simple, as they do on their ninth studio album, Can We Please Have Fun. The album was produced with a light touch by Englands Kid Harpoon, who has brought a grounded, analog sense of taste to albums by Harry Styles, Maggie Rogers, and Florence + the Machine. Here, he largely stays out way -- or perhaps smartly guides Kings of Leon to stay out of their own way and keep things as bare-bones as possible. The album has the raw, athletic feeling of songs being jammed out in a basement and pummeled into shape by repetition and verbal fist fights. Particularly redolent of this raw feeling is "Mustang"; equal parts Iggy & the Stooges and Achtung Baby-era U2, its easily one of the bands most infectious singles since "Use Somebody" and one that also feels the most like it could have come from their sleazy garage rock debut, Youth & Young Manhood. Elsewhere, the band manage to pull wider influences into their sound without weighing themselves down or slowing the momentum. This is especially true of "Actual Daydream," a Spanish-inflected number that nicely evokes the global art rock of Bruce Cockburn. Theres also the fluorescent 80s, adult-contempo balladry of "Split Screen" and the breezy, Jimmy Buffet-meets-George Harrison romanticism of "Ease on Me." Lyrically, the album is as Dada-gritty as any of singer Caleb Followills past work, punctuated by wry, pseudo-existential ponderings, as in "Mustangs," which asks, "Are you a mustang or a kitty?" Your desire to answer that question may or may not depend on how deeply you spark to the album. Yet, the lyric is playful, Pop Art-provocative, and speaks to the joy, sweat, and poetic inspiration coursing through all of Can We Please Have Fun. ~ Matt Collar

3兄弟+その従兄弟から成るナッシュヴィルの4人組が、結成から25年を経たタイミングでさらなる進化を遂げたことを印象づける9作目。ドゥワップ・コーラスを使ったオールディーズなバラード"Don't Stop The Bleeding"に顕著なルーツ・ロックからの影響も受け継ぎながら、奏で続けてきたポスト・パンクなロック・サウンドは変わらないものの、ギター・アンサンブルが一変。リフやフレーズという概念から解放された2本のギターが、もともと自由度の高かったベースプレイと絡み合う様は、まさにフリーキーでサイケデリック。パースペクティヴな音像を体験すると、バンドに対する見方もがらっと変わる。
bounce (C)山口智男