Kings of Leon still rule with 'Only by the Night'
USA Today
"Only by the Night" by Kings of Leon
Last year's "Because of the Times" found the Tennessee quartet aiming for a broader audience. On this fourth album, the Followill clan of brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared and cousin Matthew push that agenda further with a leap into commercial arena rock. Fortunately, "Night's" sleeker lines don't smooth over the band's trademark raw, fiery defiance, still firmly enthroned in the Kings' slurry garage-bred Southern rock. Roguish charms remain throughout, and what's not to like in the stadium-big chorus and U2 guitars of "Use Somebody"? "Night's" flaws lie in banal lyrics, especially the politically flat "Crawl," an impassioned rant with a blurred message.
"Sex on Fire," "Use Somebody," "I Want You"
"17," "Closer"
— Edna Gundersen
"Don't Forget" by Demi Lovato
The 16-year-old leading lady of Disney's "Camp Rock" launches her solo career with a sizable assist from camp-rocking cohorts the Jonas Brothers, who co-wrote and co-produced six tracks. They provide an insidious, Go-Go's-like single in "Get Back" and a pretty ballad in "The World Inside," but "La La Land" is far too frantic for its own good. As for Lovato, her vocals rock pleasantly but are far too mannered, cooing coyly one minute, shrilly over-emoting the next. She shows promise as a singer and writer, but less showing off would improve matters.
"Get Back," "The World Inside "
"La La Land," "Train wreck"
— Ken Barnes
"Acid Tongue" by Jenny Lewis
"Acid Tongue" finds the Rilo Kiley singer lurching from such floaty vocal gems as "Black Sand" to the fruity "See Fernando" on a painfully uneven album that could have been pruned into an impressive EP. Lewis shines on the angry "Godspeed," mournful "Sing a Song for Them" and "Carpetbaggers," a winning country duet with Elvis Costello. Even with assists from Zooey Deschanel, M. Ward, Johnathan Rice and the Black Crowes' Chris Robinson, the outing founders on Lewis' overweening ambition and inability to recognize her limitations, as evident in the sizzle-free torch of "Bad Man's World" and bloated "The Next Messiah."
"Black Sand," "Godspeed," "Carpetbaggers"
"Trying My Best to Love You," "Jack Killed Mom"
"The Next Messiah," "Bad Man's World," "See Fernando"
— Edna Gundersen
"Time the Conqueror" by Jackson Browne
Don't be put off by that salt-and-pepper beard on the CD cover: Jackson's earthy baritone hasn't aged a day. The songs may have a sometimes wearying feel, but their mellow warmth and plaintive edges offer little sense of either resignation or renewal. And songs such as "The Drums of War" and "Far From the Arms of Hunger" prove Browne's social conscience is as sharp as ever.
Title track, "Giving That Heaven Away"
"Where Were You"
— Elysa Gardner
