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Only By The Night - Kings of Leon
Only By The Night Image
Metascore
63 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 30 Critics What's this?

User Score
6.5 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 150 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Summary: The fourth album for the rock band from Tennessee was produced by Angelo Petraglia and Jacquire King.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 30
  3. Negative: 3 out of 30
  1. Observer Music Monthly
    100
    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.
  2. Mojo
    60
    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]
    All this publication's reviews
  3. Pitchfork
    38
    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.

See all 30 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 58 out of 91
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 91
  3. Negative: 26 out of 91
  1. kol25
    10
    kol have made a great soft rock album here. i do prefer the earlier sound but bands change, thats what bands do. Crawl, i want you, manhattan, cold desert and revlery are the stand out tracks.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. WD1
    5
    I see reviewers writing whole essays about this album, but I think one word can easily sum up Only By The Night: tame. "Crawl" is actually pretty good, though.… Expand
    • 2 of 2 users said yes
  3. TomA
    3
    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.… Expand
    • 2 of 2 users said yes

See all 91 User Reviews

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