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Vinyl Club: Kings of Leon's "Only By The Night" · 78 Amped

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Maxwell, I think it's really important that you share with our listeners the song you were just singing before we started Vinyl Club.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: For legal reasons, um I don't think I'm allowed to sing much more Blood on the Dance Floor.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um we were just going through our early Spotify raps and obviously top ten, all ten.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I just thought probably best not to bring it to the podcast.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: I heard you and you really enjoyed their interview on Brian Starr's.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Huge fan, Sam.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Huge fan, huge fan.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I will say on both the blood and the dance floor.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Did you ever watch Brian Starr's interviews at all?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't like I'm aware of them, but I don't think I've patronized one.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, he was kind of like the first big interviewer on YouTube.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, in the scene at least.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: In the scene, yeah, yeah.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then he was problematic.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Most of that scene was at that time.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say there's a seems to be got a theme in the scene, doesn't it?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: It does.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Sambo, uh, you gave me some homework this week in the form of 2008's biggest rock album, uh, Only by the Night by King.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: I was about to call it When the Night, which is a different album by St.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Lucia.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Only by the Night by Kings of Leon.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: And look, I'll tell you what, Sam, this is the best U2 album that came out in 2008.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: This is absolutely a U2 album.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I think like it's it's U2 mixed with like a little bit of like southern swamp rock, mixed a little bit of like um bluesy, like white stripes type stuff.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: But it is by far the biggest influence on this record, at least by my ears, is U2.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: The the the heavily affected guitars, the way that it's sort of like all in the mix.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Really, really interesting.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I I I think keep that in mind as I go through.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not a criticism.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's not it's just it's it's purely an observation of when someone brings up U2, usually it's like, oh well, fucking I didn't know you heard it.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I'm quite I quite like U2.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think U2's a actually a very, very good band.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're extremely proli prolific to the point that there's a lot of bad U2 songs, but only because they've written hundreds and hundreds.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, U2 really undid themselves with Apple Music's launch, didn't they?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, look, it wasn't the best move.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I in many ways I think that was the the final nail in the coffin from a social perspective.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I think a lot of people who dislike U2 maybe dislike Bono and like his personality.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: But I think musically U2 are a pretty like unbelievable band.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: They've got bangers.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they certainly do.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: But we're talking about Kings of Leon.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: We are talking about Kings of Leon, Sam.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, this this uh record dropped in 2008.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for anyone who I mean, everyone has probably heard something on this album because Sex on Fire, You Somebody, uh Close is the next biggest.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, well, actually, I think Notion was the next biggest.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, really?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: As it no, as it probably like not statistically speaking, I think probably um close is bigger on a stream's perspective.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I think in terms of like I've definitely heard Notion either in film or in TV or ads or something like that, like it was it had a run.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think the way that they've produced this record is quite good.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like the the U-2-iness of it in the guitar effects and the way that they use those as kind of the basis for this record, quite impressive.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: The other big part of this album that I think is is a really cool I'm gonna say basis foundation, if you will, is the grooves.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: They're big on the grooves through this record.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: The way that the drums and the bass line and the rhythm guitar kind of really throw these, throw these quite complex um, you know, polyrhythms around and bounce between those instruments.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually in a lot of songs, it's actually really, really cool.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, like Revelry, yeah, they do it a lot of times.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think uh what was the some of the other ones that had uh those those big grooves?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh I Want You also has like a quite a complex like interplay between all of the instrumentation.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it's quite it's quite for what is essentially mainstream rock in 2008, fairly complex rhythms that you wouldn't necessarily hear.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, not I don't think you would hear you wouldn't hear it in the mainstream.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I can't think of another big mainstream rock album that would have that kind of complexity, at least like probably since 2000.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like there's probably a few like new metal, early new metal albums, like some of like Nookie or something like that from uh Lincoln Park is pretty technical at times, yeah.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, there's a lot of interplay between these between these uh different instrumentation different instruments.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Instrumentation.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Instrumentation.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: What I will say before you jump in to just talk about how prolific this album is.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know if you had it, but it sold over 6.2 million copies worldwide.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of records, which is I guess in the UK, US, and Australia, it went 10 times platinum in the UK, it went 11 times platinum in Australia, and it went two times platinum in the US.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that I'll tell you what, let's I'm I'm gonna skip forward because I think Sex on Fire and You Somebody were so culturally ubiquitous that I think in my mind they almost lose musicality.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like you know, when you you you you almost go beyond thinking about a song in terms of its songness and you start thinking about it the time in your life when it was just everywhere, it becomes a cultural phenomenon, yeah, definitely.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so sitting down and listening to these songs with trying to ignore the musicality, sorry, trying to ignore the cultural impact and listen to the musicality was quite quite interesting.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think sex on fire, the that guitar, that main guitar after dunno that I think it's actually quite on this record.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's actually one of the worst riffs.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's it's it's fine.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing wrong with it.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it's quite plain, simple, very simple.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like as I said before, there's a lot of complexity in here, a lot of like the big affected stadium-size riffs, and that one's kind of just there.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: But it I guess it appeals to the masses, and that was what and that's true.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's what that brought it across.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I think the the part of the song that gives the song its mainstream like longevity, it's that it's that chorus.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like it it the like that it starts soaring the blend between the vocal and that guitar line, like the wailing on top of it, those two things together just they just hit that part of your brain that just goes, Fuck yeah, I'm locking in for this.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: I on that point, like the album itself, you listen through to it, listen through it, sorry, and it does put you in a time and a place.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's really weird, it's like it's nostalgic, but it's really warm and it's sunny and it it's kind of like a desert.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, it it makes you feel a certain energy, yeah.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think to the the we'll come I want to come back to the desert thing for a second, a bit later on, but I wanted to touch on you somebody um more than sex on fire.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: As I think you somebody is probably if you were to say to someone, what is like what is the wrap it up in one song thesis of this album, it's you somebody.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it has more of that you two big stadium structure, like it has big crowds sing along moments where like because sex on fire, that note is such a big, powerful note.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone's gonna try and sing it at a show, but no one's gonna hit it.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: But the you somebody, everyone can kind of whoa along with it, and it kind of has that more stadium rock quality to it that I think the rest of this record kind of goes for.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think in terms of if I was to say, like, you have to listen to one song on this record, I think you somebody ends up being the more like representative sex on fire, obviously the biggest song, huge cultural moment, but I think they knew that they had a one-off single that just needed to live on this album, but probably wasn't part of the broader story they were trying to tell.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I feel that.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um coming back to the the point you had about the sort of the desert warm western kind of feel.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of that sits in the again, the the the affectation on the the guitars and stuff like that, but it's kind of how jangly, if you if you strip back a lot of the guitar effects, a lot of this sounds quite jangly.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: And the way that they're kind of doing the like tremolo moments or like the the the actual like playing of the guitar before you put it through any kind of um effects, kind of has like a like a western, country western sort of vibe to it.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: Very scratchy, very picky, if that makes sense.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and they talk like in all their albums, the one after it come after come around sundown.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: All their songs are very warm, they're hot, they're like all about I don't know, you feel like you've got a glistening glisten of sweat across you.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and don't forget, this is a band from Tennessee.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this is an album that was recorded in Nashville.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: There's probably a a fair degree of both obviously rock and roll, southern rock and roll, but country that's sort of like 100% uh adjacent to this music.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's I would say none of this is country music, but I I feel like there are times when you go, oh yeah, you can see that they had that that influence in their lives, you know.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: The again, the the get the pickiness of the guitar, that kind of very like um what what are they called?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like chick uh fucking L.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: What's I'm trying to chicken picking?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yep.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: There's a specific terminology that country picking.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's probably chicken picking.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's something like that.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but then yeah, I feel like they've almost deliberately gone like what's the most opposite part of that, and that's these big stadium soaring things and the complexities of the grooves.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I think they've gone like how do you build these things together?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: And when they do come together, it kind of it just sort of sounds like yeah, like stadium rock meets southern swamp rock.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think it it does it quite well.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: I quite enjoyed the record.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's probably a few songs toward the back end that I'd be happy to kind of show the door.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think Be Somebody a bit fine.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think one of the early ones, I'm trying to remember which one it was.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe no, I quite liked Crawl, but 17, that one could probably get a cut as well.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think you've got yourself pretty close to a very, very good album here with a couple of extras that I'd be happy to jettison.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was the highest-selling album in Australia in 2008.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I will say I feel bad for them because use somebody in Sex on Fire, like you said, for Kings of Leon, that's not really their sound.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, and they've released these two songs and they've become the biggest songs in their whole repertoire, and they haven't been able to top them.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're never gonna be able to top it just because of how time and place and just perfect storm, yeah, those two songs were.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: But the complexity, like you said, is a real standout.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Even when you listen to something like Close at the start of the album, yeah, that riff, obviously, there's a lot of delay to it, but the ghost notes in the drums, incredibly like not difficult, but just the attention to detail is really cool.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's very there is a lot of technicality to this record.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh closing on a song like Cold Desert, which after you have these big I I want to talk album structure for a second because I think what this record does well and then does poorly in the same thing is it packs a lot of the similar sounding songs together.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think side A has a lot more of that big stadium sound, and side B still has a bit of it, but is more mournful and less triumphant, and I think it it relies a lot more on the groove, which is fine.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like the groove is good.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to make it sound like the groove is bad, but I think to close on cold desert after you've been through notion I want you and be somebody, I think you you do close on the downer, which is fine.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's fine to make that kind of artistic statement, but when you've had such a soaring, huge A-side with closer, crawl, sex on fire, you somebody, it's it does feel like a big gear change.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think moving some of those around, spreading it out, even and even still ending on cold desert to give you that kind of like melancholy closer.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think structurally, this album could probably do with a shovel.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, you tell them.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: I hey, excuse me, Mr.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Producer.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: What I will say though, I've said that about six times in this episode.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: What what you will say though.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: What I will say, only by the night obviously dropped, and it was huge.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then they kind of faded a little bit just because they weren't in pop culture as much, given the heights of that album.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, radioactive on the next record.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say that next record has bangers because I think they released their best song on the next album.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Pyro.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, that's a good song.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: That is a very good song.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: That is a good song.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: That is a very, very good song.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd argue that it is their best song.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: I yeah, I'd certainly put it, I'd definitely put it like top five for sure.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's well, it's yeah, number four most streamed for them.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think technical statistically, it's their third highest streamed song.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, but um yeah, I think overall uh a chance to listen to a record that I obviously knew existed but hadn't really taken the time to properly sit down and listen to.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think because because both Sex on Fire and You Somebody were so culturally ubiquitous to me, it just became one of the things of like, oh, the Kings of Lincoln, and that's that's them, which is you shouldn't pitch in whole bands, but there's a bit more depth to them.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, when when when you're 14 and that song is literally everywhere, it's hard to not do that.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sex and fine.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Sambo, I'm gonna give you some homework.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I haven't actually selected homework for you yet, so I'm gonna select it on the fly.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Beautiful.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you this album.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, hell yeah.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maddion! Maddion with victory.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know how much I like am able to talk about dance music.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: And well, you you I think your repertoire, your, your, your vocab is growing.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: It is, and I think you uh you get them there.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard somebody else.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: That was the one you brought to the show.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: I've probably bought a couple of super platinum.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Super platinum, yeah.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Super platinum.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Bam, bab, bam.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm keen to listen to this.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's very pretty, too.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: It is a nice looking record.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about throwing it around over there.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: But sorry.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, no, it is.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think a record that you will probably get into.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just I've like you've always had a taste of super platinum, but there's a few in here that I think will just really tickle that part of your brain.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into it.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Any uh any vinyl thoughts for the weekend?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: No, I've got to try and afford these nickelback tickets.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: What about you?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um as I said last week, got a fair few incoming.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they've started to arrive, and I was like, oof, I might have wanted too many.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can never have too much.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: My bank account is looking at me going, brother.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can never have too many records, it's a scientific fact.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: If if the science is economics, not good.