Their Kingdom Comes4 Out of 5 Stars
I have been a fan of this band since this CD, and realized I'd never posted a review about it. "Youth and Young Manhood" is a rock CD that strips away pretense, gets down to basics, turns the amps to ten and cracks open the Jim Beam. Raw and intense, this is garage rock as filtered through the Mason Dixon line. There's elements of Iggy, the Faces and yes, although the comparison has long since worn off, The Strokes.
Given that Kings Of Leon have gotten better with each successive album, hearing "Youth and Young Manhood" after a near six year career shows where the band was coming from. There's the Tom Petty drawl of "Joe's Head" or the Stones intimidation of "Molly's Chambers." The commandingly sexual "Holy Roller Novocaine" should have been a hit. In these songs, you can hear the cockiness that would soon spread into confidence by Aha Shake Heartbreak.
It's that self-assuredness that makes Kings Of Leon one of my favorite bands. There's little PC about their music (although there aren't any of the bad sex puns that have shown up on successive CD's), and it's highly entertaining to listen to a band that doesn't concern itself much outside the rock and roll basics. "Youth And Young Manhood" captures a gang of aggressive southern kids with a six-pack, a Strokes and Black Crowes library, and time to kill.
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