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Only By The Night
by Kings Of Leon

Kings Of Leon reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 63 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
6.8 out of 10
based on 30 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 106 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

The fourth album for the rock band from Tennessee was produced by Angelo Petraglia and Jacquire King.

LABEL: RCA
RELEASE DATE: 23 September 2008
DISCS: 1 disc
GENRE(S): Rock, Alternative

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Observer Music Monthly
The dreamy 'Cold Desert' is the perfect maudlin end to this short, sharp, 42-minute, no-filler album, revelling in every miserable blues-rocker cliché as Matthew's guitar goes all shoegazey and then briefly threatens to turn the whole thing into a 'Purple Rain' wig-out.
Read Full Review
83
Entertainment Weekly
Throughout Only by the Night, frontman Caleb Followill wails forlornly about cheap thrills and true love while his two brothers (and a cousin) bash
 out spooky, raw-edged riffs that rarely go where you expect them to.
Read Full Review
80
Sputnikmusic
As it is, it's a very fine record from a band who are seemingly growing in stature, confidence, and ability by the day.
Read Full Review
80
Uncut
The four players are able to design the tracks in architectural detail, each part locking into the rest with unerring precission, and this tautness keeps the album from sagging through its most challenging stretch. [Oct 2008, p.78]
Read Full Review
80
Q Magazine
Kings of Leon needed to make a very specific sounding type of album in order to seize their moment, and that they have done, entirely successfully. [Oct 2008, p.134]
80
Spin
On their fourth album, the Kings of Leon still rule with a messy hand, applying rough magic and blurry, slurred imagery to their swashbuckling rock.
Read Full Review
80
Hartford Courant
It's the mark of a great band when each new album is better than the one before it, and with Only by the Night, Kings of Leon shows once more just how great a band it has become.
Read Full Review
80
Delusions of Adequacy
It’s a tight, very good album and although it’ll have its unfair share of detractors, like the rest of the band’s albums, it will shine no matter what.
Read Full Review
70
Filter
They're better when they're reflective, not reflexive, as on the galloping, careening 'Be Somebody' and the mournful 'Cold Desert,' but the album lacks the hooky rock the band once pulled off so effortlessly, even when thry weren't trying. [Fall 2008, p.91]
70
All Music Guide
Like many big-sounding albums, Only by the Night is a polarizing piece of work, one that targets new fans at the expense of those who wish Kings of Leon had never shaved their beards or discovered post-'70s rock.
Read Full Review
70
New Musical Express
Like their last, Only By The Night is front-loaded with world-beaters but then gradually ebbs back to more interchangeable moments. More than ever its strengths, when it succeeds, later become its weaknesses. It tries a mite too hard.
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70
Billboard
There are a few head-scratchers,....but singer Caleb Followill has never been in better command of his beyond-his-years howl, and he's got monster hooks and melodies yet in his bottle of tricks.
Read Full Review
70
Blender
When Caleb evokes God's wrath on the "crucified U.S.A." or describes lost-highway lonelines, the batter-fried U2 atmospherics and portentous Dixiefied grunge makes his worry as real as Brimstone. [Oct 2008, 2008, p.80]
Read Full Review
67
The Onion (A.V. Club)
It's clear they're ditching the indie legitimacy for the stadium-packing, lighter-waving crowd. Thankfully, it's a fully earnest aesthetic, and the record showcases a variety of songs without being crippled by the indulgent filler of albums past.
Read Full Review
63
Los Angeles Times
Lord knows that's not the sound [arena-ready guitar] likely to revitalize rock music in 2008, but it's generally a convincing fit for the extended Followill clan, whose salty earnestness grounds some epic production.
Read Full Review
60
Mojo
Only By The Night is best viewed as a transitional record from a band who have quite literally done their growing up in public. [Oct 2008, p.98]
60
The Guardian
Much of Only By the Night is unmistakably the work of a band making music with arenas in mind. Sometimes it's intriguing.
Read Full Review
60
Rolling Stone
Only by the Night is long on astral, arena-ready largeness, with blippy keyboards, droney guitars and whoa-oh-oh backing vocals.
Read Full Review
60
The New York Times
This isn’t natural territory for Kings of Leon, and it often shows. At times the band seems content to channel the monumental sweep of U2.
Read Full Review
60
Village Voice
Through headphones or computer speakers, Caleb's echoey vocals just don't ring credible. Their Black-Crowes-go-new-wave choruses are exciting enough, but they feel unearned after tiresome, oversung verses.
Read Full Review
58
cokemachineglow
I have enough faith in this band to presume they’ll eventually see Only By the Night for what it is, as a fourth album hiccup that fails to play to their strengths.
Read Full Review
50
Dot Music
Only by The Night will undoubtedly sell bucketloads but there's no escaping the fact that creatively, Kings Of Leon have stalled.
Read Full Review
50
musicOMH.com
This is an album which feels like it was made quickly, not because of artists reaching a terminal velocity of creativity, but to take maximum advantage of an audience who may not be there this time next year.
Read Full Review
50
Slant Magazine
While their ambition for evolving remains admirable, their apparent failure to understand their own strengths is troubling and undermines the promise they showed on their previous efforts.
Read Full Review
45
Prefix Magazine
Essentially a funhouse mirror of 2007's far superior "Because of the Times," Only by the Night stumbles under the weight of its ambitions by lacking the songs necessary to support them
Read Full Review
40
Under The Radar
Only By The Night has exposed itself as the weakest Kings Of Leon album. [Fall 2008, p.76]
40
NOW Magazine
For the most part the record is a sluggish mess of sweeping guitars and stoner-rock sounds, not unlike what you might hear at a high school talent show.
Read Full Review
38
Pitchfork
Surely, we can do better for the platonic ideal of a rock band than four guys gunning for a spot rightfully inhabited by My Morning Jacket but instead coming up with the best songs 3 Doors Down never wrote.
Read Full Review
30
Austin Chronicle
Kings of Leon here depend on a major label production budget rather than hooks. Caleb Followill's nasal yelp remains totally disarming, but the stupidity of 'Sex on Fire' douses all credibility.
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20
PopMatters
Where surprises could be found with each previous release to give even casual fans something to appreciate, Only by the Night delivers an even serving of Ritalin coma stadium rock destined to raise their prime age demographic.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this album is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 106 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Southern Rocker gave it a10:
10..an easy 10. This album is great all the way through. Excellent lyrics. Expertly produced. Some may not like the progression and changes bands go through, but if album 4 sounds just like album 3, wouldn't that be a little boring? I can't put the CD down. Guess I'll play it again!

Chris H gave it a10:
One of the best rock albums in recent memory. with a taste of 80's beat and feel that somehow works. Well done

John V gave it a10:
Wow. One of the best albums I have ever heard. Very creative, groovy, and powerful all at the same time. Calebs voice is amazing.

Matt H-C gave it an8:
This is a very solid album, Caleb's vocals are on fire.

Mateo G gave it a9:
Very nicee record... One of my favs albums of the year... I know they've changed from their roots, but all bands need to change so we as fans don't get bored with the same music released with every new album... Very creative!

Marlise G gave it a0:
K.O.L. (Kings Of Losers) makes the worst alternative rock albums from 2008, and the Grammy and Brit Awards gave awards now, for the losers and biggest mediocrity and terrible music that exist in this planet.

Christian C gave it a0:
thanks to this awful album Kings Of Lion was died for me and many people who loved their music, They can makes One Hit Wonders and going to disappear like Kaiser Chiefs. R.I.P. Kings Of Leon.

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