Hot on the heels of douche-bro rock cretins Nickelback and Hinder, Kings of Leon seemed to come out of nowhere to carry on the torch of overly polished, vaguely sexist rock music for teen audiences with 2008's "Sex On Fire" and "Use Somebody." Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher claimed one of his favorite bands "went for the bucks" with the album that spawned those hits, Only By the Night, assessing their sound by saying "they've all got their sleeves cut off," whatever that means. Fuzzy metaphors aside, there is a definite change in the Kings of Leon sound on those songs, which follow a much glossier rock outline found on Top 40 radio at the time. The band's own guitarist even admitted that "Sex On Fire" isn't exactly the height of their musical ambitions, but it's one they have to play live: True music fans and music lovers probably think that song is absolutely terrible, but its just this huge song for us." To say Only By the Night is formulaic or watered down doesn't quite do justice to how abruptly Kings of Leon turned away from their Southern rock-meets-Pixies sound that reverberated throughout their previous albums. They went after mainstream recognition hard...and it worked.
