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100

Observer Music Monthly

Kings of Leon have spent much of the past couple of years in potentially soul-sapping support slots on extended US stadium tours by the likes of Bob Dylan, Pearl Jam and, most significantly, U2. But rather than be ground down by that experience, they've used it as the jumping-off point for a bold expansion of their own parameters.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Because Of The Times isn't likely to make anyone forget Lynyrd Skynyrd. But it's still one of the most consistently surprising and vibrant rock records since, arguably, Aha Shake Heartbreak.

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Entertainment Weekly

If less accessible on first hearing than its predecessors, the result is an epic wide-screen movie of a CD and the band's best to date.

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Filter

This is meat and 'taters rock mixed with the Devil's blood. [#24, p.90]

Alternative Press

They've honed their sound perfectly, hitting every mark they set and making Because Of The Times kick so much ass that it demands you respect them as new rock royalty. [May 2007, p.152]

cokemachineglow

The best thing, really, that can be said of Because of the Times is that it works the hardest trick: seeming deeply personal and inclusive, but still having an embrace elastic enough to be universally appealing.

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New Musical Express

'Because Of The Times' cements Kings Of Leon as one of the great American bands of our times.

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Billboard

"Because of the Times" is a brooder at heart, and much of the material here is some of the Kings' most demanding to date. It's also among their best. [14 Apr 2007]

Uncut

It's all certainly a lot more complex, if a little less immediate, than anything they've done before. [May 2007, p.104]

Mojo

Because Of The Times burns with all the invention and ambition that seemed to have been sucked out of its predecessor. [May 2007, p.108]

Under The Radar

A highly experimental, willfully difficult curveball that, against all odds, is incredibly listenable and far more noteworthy than their conventional (albeit solid) output to date could have ever hinted at. [#17, p.85]

Q Magazine

While lyrically Kings Of Leon remain underdeveloped, how they've grown musically. [May 2007, p.119]

Rolling Stone

The band doesn't fuss with any sort of rootsy purism, which is why it gets away with retro moves that would sound soft from anybody else.

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The Guardian

If you like your Americana raw and passionate, look no further.

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musicOMH.com

Because Of The Times is Kings Of Leon's best album yet, their most fully realised and mature work to date.

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Hartford Courant

Although it's stylistically diverse, the album feels coherent.

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Dot Music

The need for rock'n'roll bands to declare war on clichés has been evident for ages. But who'd have thought a band in tight jeans and sunglasses would wind up leading the charge?

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Prefix Magazine

Because of the Times is Kings of Leon's turn at maturity, without any of the pretentiousness that customarily surrounds that label.

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Hot Press

The group have kept their sound surprisingly fresh incorporating some welcome sonic refinements, without making any great creative leap or departure.

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ShakingThrough.net

Because of the Times... reveals a band growing musically and revealing the requisite growing pains.

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BBC collective

There’s gold here but you need to dig deep.

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Slant Magazine

However admirable and surprising the band's ambition throughout Because Of The Times may be, not every experiment works so well.

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Blender

The Kings sound huger, less moonshine-slurry, even more romantic.

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PopMatters

So it’s tough to call this one. If it were only the first eight tracks this would probably be the best album I’ve heard in 2007.

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No Ripcord

Not quite a soaring rock masterpiece, but certainly a bold move that achieves a variable degree of success. Because of the Times proves that Kings of Leon have the ability to change move into new territory, as so many of their garage peers from five years ago have failed to do.

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Austin Chronicle

More muscle than penmanship, more highway than garage, Because the Times rolls like Foghat at the close of Dazed & Confused.

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All Music Guide

The general move away from strong, hooky choruses to a focus on expansive, intricate and percussive arrangements may challenge casual and even some longtime fans of the band's catchy, Southern garage rock twang.

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NOW Magazine

Kings of Leon often seem torn between their stadium rawk impulses and their hip underground aspirations.

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Pitchfork

Flirtations with big-sky atmospherics can hardly hold these songs together. What sounds like a hodgepodge of Edgy experiments and raised-Zippo nostalgia is just that: a hodgepodge.

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Spin

This LP sounds too close to unfocused jamming. [Apr 2007, p.95]

Stylus Magazine

Because of the Times validates the theory that the Kings of Leon are merely the Eagles in wolf’s clothing (or the Strokes in overalls), being that the album’s collection of tales, focusing solely on hard-living and harder women, are but hokey pulp fictions disguised with mellowed sincerity, played out on mythical dirt roads and overgrown farmhouses.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 120 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jonathon S gave it a3:
I was let down, some good songs here and there, but in general this isn't the kings I used to love. I hope with the next cd they return to their roots. p.d. Zeke this cd is their FOURTH LP.

Ozz L gave it an8:
Possibly their best album to date. Shame the sales weren't what they deserved to be. The first half of the album is rocky and aggressive. The second half of the album is mature and musically brilliant. On the whole a good album.

Zach P gave it a9:
Flawed, spectacular and sprawling, Because of the Times is the Kings best album yet. it's contagious and insane and "On Call' is by far their best song since "California Waiting." If the bittersweet melody of that song and "Arizona" doesn't touch you in some way, you have no soul.

Tim B gave it a5:
The greatness of the Kings of Leons first couple of discs was the fact that they made sleazy slurring rock n' roll and sported fashions that COMPLETELY ignored current trends and fashions. On this CD, they turn their back on their previous stance and jump the latest haircuts, fashions, and sounds in quest of the top of the latest-greatest heap. Congratulations dudes, you're a success and...you suck like everybody else.

Mojo PiN gave it a9:
While lyrically it's no masterpiece, the words still resonate as personal, impassioned tales that help carry the tunes, but ultimately, it's the depth of the music, the beautifully thick and well placed drum sounds and the soaring neo-shoegazing guitar work that makes this album a real gem of 2007.

Tom O. gave it an8:
Great new sound for KOL, not as passionate as they are on the previous records.

Steven H. gave it a7:
A little more up-and-down than most albums, but when it's up it's pretty damn catchy. Solid effort.

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Because Of The Times

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