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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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]

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 >

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 >

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 >

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]

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 >

New Musical Express (NME)

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.

Read Full Review >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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]

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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

Under The Radar

Only By The Night has exposed itself as the weakest Kings Of Leon album. [Fall 2008, p.76]

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 >

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 >

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.

Read Full Review >

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

The average user rating for this album is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 121 User Votes

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

Ricky P. gave it a1:
This is perhaps one of the biggest sell out albums (if not THE biggest) of the past decade. A band with much talent goes and releases drivel in order to please people in clubs. There is no intelligence involved and no insight that made previous efforts worthwhile. Truly disappointing, in the context of their talent.

Smitty gave it a6:
For my 1st time listening to any of their albums, this was well composed. Every song offers a taste of their live performance whereas you could imagine seeing them on stage. It stands out b/c they have a sound almost bigger than any other band that's been out as long as they have.

Josh H. gave it a2:
I keep being told this album is a clean representation of a band selling out. "Sex On Fire" will be the thing that ultimately destroys what was a half-decent band. Commercial will love it though, god what don't they love.

Rhys gave it a1:
As a result of this album, I have completely lost faith in the Kings. It's a sell out that escapes into soft core stadium rock, almost completely lacking any of the original grit that defined the Kings as a band. The only throwback to that sound is the building tension in "Be Somebody," which is reminiscent of "Four Kicks," but is resolved with no dirty guitars or guttural vocals, just a sweet, "easy" chorus. The only benefit of this album is that it made me able to appreciate "" as still retaining some of the magic seen on the first two albums, which is completely lost here. It's safe to say that after this, I'll be downloading the next album, if I bother with it at all.

Tom A gave it a3:
At best, its fairly average. 2007's Because Of Times was one of the best albums of the last decade, but this fell along way short of that benchmark. There are 1 or 2 decent moments, but most of the songs are wastefully transparent, the lyrics are horribly cliched and any trace of that quirky edge ,which made the band so likeable in earlier albums, has been washed away in a tide of indie-rock mediocrity. It seems that Kings of Leon have transcended from different but brilliant to uniform but sellable; pressure from their record company may not have helped, but the whole of this record seems to have slipped into the line of 'fashionable' music. A special mention, finally, for 'Use Somebody'. Quite simply, one of the worst songs ever written by any band with their level of talent. It really is awful - yet it has risen to new heights of adulation. And that, in a way, pretty much sums up this album.

fred r. gave it a10:
This album has been at or near the top of the Soundscan album sales chart since its release. KOL obviously know what they are doing. It makes me wonder whether their critics were paying customers.

Jon G gave it a9:
Comical that critics pounced on this for being, ohmygosh, commercially successful. Meaning if a lot of people like it it must be dumb, because all people besides me, the critic/hipster, are dumb. Actually, this is a fantastic album, not going to appeal to the NPR/Paste magazine set but great rock music, with well constructed well written songs. Not for fans of The Decemberists.

Music

Upcoming &Recent Releases

Only By The Night

Album Info

Summary

What The Critics Said

What Our Users Said

Upcoming &
Recent Releases