Youth & Young Manhood

God this is rough. I don't think I've run into worse singing on the entire list, and that's fucking impressing when Pere Ubu exists (At least with Pere Ubu, the intent was experimentalism).

But yeah. Pretty quickly I found it boiled down to bog standard 2000's garage rock (By way of The Who and maybe a little Rolling Stones, two bands who absolutely do not deserve KoL shitting on their sound) with just the shittiest singing ever.

But the singing just kept getting worse. At first it sounded like he was drunk and slurring his words. Was preparing to give it a 2 and just be done with it, but Jesus, this is rancid.

So yeah. Think I'm honestly leaning towards the 1. Don't hand those out often, but fuck man. Pitchfork was being LENIENT with that 4.2/10 (Looked at their score after listening).

Ahh, this had to be it, right? I mean, it 100% doesn’t fit any of the categories (Genre Highlight, inventive, influential, …) that would make it eligible, and it absolutely shouldn’t be on this list. No way. That being said, it does bring a smile to my face listening to it today. Not because the lyrics are great or anything (God forbid), but because it’s a solid garage rocker with a distinctive vocalist. And most importantly: memories.

See, I love the first three The Strokes records, and coming from a very rural small town (in Europe), I probably wouldn’t have known about The Strokes for a long time if it weren’t for the liner notes of the Youth & Young Manhood CD. Miraculously, there was a tiny record store “downtown” with an even tinier “rock” section. Most of the CDs in that crate I could easily attribute to my father’s collection. But, you know, youth… I wanted to find my own gems.

Kings of Leon’s debut sat in that crate for a good year before the owner lost patience and marked it down to bargain-bin price. And then, my time had come. I didn’t know who the band were, I didn’t know anything about the record, but I was intrigued by the cover art and it wasn’t already in my dad’s collection, so I bought it. And I loved it; listened to it over and over again. Occasionally, I’d take a look at the booklet, and there I found the band thanking another band who had recorded their album in the studio next door while Kings of Leon were making their debut: The Strokes.

When it finally became time to make a trip to the nearest major city, I went to a “real” record store, bought the first two Strokes records, and promptly (well, sort of) forgot about Youth & Young Manhood. Their subsequent albums didn’t do much to win me back as a fan. But in the end, I’m left with those fond memories of listening to this album over the course of one particularly hot and otherwise utterly boring summer in a small town.

Long and pointless review? I guess, you could say similar things about Youth & Young Manhood, but if you have memories attached to it, well, why not admit you kinda like it.

The Southern-rock twang gives this a little character, but underneath it I mostly hear fairly routine alternative rock. Kings of Leon sound enthusiastic enough; I just wish more of that enthusiasm rubbed off on me. Too many songs lean on the same ideas, and the rough-edged playing isn’t enough to keep them interesting.

I don’t need constant reinvention, but a few more distinctive riffs or melodies would help. After a handful of tracks, I feel like I’ve heard most of what the album has to offer. Unfortunately, the album itself hasn’t reached that conclusion yet.

didn't really listen as in depth as i usually do but had it on in the background for a while at work today and i was really surprised how much i liked what i was hearing i was like no way this is the sex on fire guys . this is their first album too so like what happened

2/5. The 2000’s saw a massive boom in indie rock, with acts actually rising to become household names. Whether that be the strong hooks of the Strokes or the stripped back and raw bluesy epics of the white stripes. So what did Kings of Leon bring to the table to separate themselves from all these other 2000’s rockers? The answer is simple, really god damn annoying vocals. As a key example look at the track “Trani” which ends with the vocalist doing what could only be described as a really bad impression of a fantasy goblin while he attempts to shout way beyond his limited vocal range. The music is also quite basic, there is just so many better artists and albums from this era, we can leave the Kings of Leon behind in the 2000’s.

eh menos pior que os outros DOIS (!) que tem aqui tbm. ou seja, eh só HORROROSO, ufa!!!!!!

Hated his voice at times. I love Red Morning Light and Molly's Chambers though. Unlike a lot of stuff around it.

An empty exercise in pageantry & pretension.

goood, nothing crazy notable but a good classic time

I really like this. There's not much from this era that still sounds good to my ears. The Strokes first album, a couple of White Stripes albums and definitely the first two Kings of Leon albums.
It's basically Creedence for the noughties, but I'm happy with that.

One time in 2005 my roommate played me a kings of leon song she likes a lot and I thought it was pretty good. I've been trying to find that so g ever since but no luck. This ranges from fine to annoying, but it's always super generic and the voice is an off putting nasal drawl. Bands like this have their place as local live music fixtures, but how this room off as an international rock act remains a mystery.

I'm really not a fan of the vocalist, and the songs are just so bland and basic. There's just nothing really interesting anywhere, and it gets really annoying after ten minutes. The bassist is playing some nice things for sure, but every song has the same train beat with folky garage guitars. The grating vocals just get more insufferable throughout the listen and the pros start to deteriorate. The guitar is just egregious and makes me wonder why they thought this sounded remotely good. There's just so many other great albums that could be on this list instead of this crap.

De ratings voor dit album worden elk jaar lager. Is dit dan de concessie van de snobs? Het licht-rauwe mode-bandje? Nou, doen dan maar gewoon een snob-keuze. Dit is echt een band van niets. De stem is verschrikkelijk. Al is het niet zo gek als op het latere album dat we al kregen. Dat betekent dat het op dat album expres uitvergroot wordt. Een extra minpunt eigenlijk. Maar ach, lager dan een 1 kan niet.

I put this band in the same category as Wolfmother. They do a serviceable job aping a couple of things that were cool a long time ago and have sort of stirred them together. If you like that flavor then it's great. If not, it's worse than the sum of its parts. For me, country-fried and classic rock are fine but KoL kind of smears them into a brown paste I can't get behind. I will say that this album was much better than anything I'd heard from them prior and less product-feeling. More earnest. Points for that.

I wasn't familiar with the Kings. They're hella fun. Reminds me of uptempo Wilco.

I bought this when it came out, so I am qualified to be one of those wankers who moaned about the Johnny-Come-Latelys who only got into them circa Sex on Fire. However, if I’m honest, I didn’t listen to it much so I was happy for the Johnny-Come-Latelys to have them. I still quite like it, I just can’t get that excited about it.

I admire how goofy the lead vocalist is on this record compared to the later stuff? Just wish the band was also a bit more out there in places, I did like a few tracks but there were also a few that I really didn't enjoy

It's a shame KoL decided to call it quits after making two really good albums.

Okay, so this takes me back! I remember loving this when it dropped in 2003. It was such a cool, raw sound, all Southern garage rock with Caleb's voice. Tracks like "Red Morning Light" and "Molly's Chambers" had this awesome, scuzzy charm that stood out.

But listening to it now? It's a bit mixed. That Strokes meets Lynyrd Skynyrd thing still has some nostalgia, but it feels a bit generic. The songs blend together, and it's just a mid-2000s garage rock album. It's a snapshot of those particular days, but it's not quite as essential as I remember.

great sun sitting album