Aha Shake Heartbreak

Ok, this is my third Kings of Leon album, and my initial reaction to seeing it pop up was that the 1001 people really tried to make Kings of Leon a thing. Three different album attempts, all removed from the 1001. I gave the previous albums a 2 and 3 and initially thought this was going to be a 3, but gotta admit it really grew on me. Even Day Old Blues, which annoyed the crap out of me the first time I heard him repeating "day old day old day old" got caught in my head and I even started to dig it. So, I think I'm going for the 4. Still too weird to go higher, but this album is a good bop. Favorite tracks: King of the Rodeo, Pistol of Fire, The Bucket, Where Nobody Knows (Wiki says it's a bonus track, but it's on the UK release which came out first so I'm including it).

I knew I liked Kings of Leon, I didn't know I loved Kings of Leon. The voice moves away from human and into instrument, it blends and meshes so perfectly into the folk/rock guitar and bass. Almost every song has some harmonic moment that makes you look up and say 'Neat!'

This precedes all the Kings of Leon songs I've actually heard before by two albums. I'm dubious, especially since the songs I'm familiar with fall on my husband's side of our music taste Venn diagram, but okay.

Oh. This is worse than I thought it would be going in. Why? Why was this deemed a necessity to hear?

another boring ass kings of leon album

These guys STINK

And this is their best work

A good time, but didn't save any songs.

God, these guys were so good right before they turned so lame.

4/5

Drinking bleach, tearing off fingernails, hot sauce enima, self-circumcision - a list of things more enjoyable than listening to kings of leon.
Not only are there at least TWO albums from this talentless, shit-stain of a band on this list, but this one is an early release for them even before the horrible hits off of their later album. I truly hope I'll never need to listen to this band again. This is my new top pick for worst addition to this list, and is time in my life I'll never get back. 0/5

I’m at a 2.5 that I will bump up to a 3.

When we last got Kings of Leon, for “Only By The Night”, I really enjoyed the first 6 tracks on that album. Only 2 of the last 5 clicked for me, and that was enough to buoy it at a 4.5 that I bumped up to a 5, because the soundscapes were still good, and the tracks felt competently safe. Plus, it was a great casual listen – I even listened to it again after I was done with this one, and yeah, that one still holds up really nicely.

For this, though? This is significantly worse to my ears, and while the instrumentals are totally fine, I don’t-uh real-a-lay like-ah his voice-uh add-ing an extra sylla-bul-uh on alm-ost ever-ay line here-uh. He really can’t decide what vocal tone he wants to take, and while I absolutely love his energy & more deliberate performance on “Only By The Night”, on here, it feels like a parody, or at the very least, it feels consistently inconsistent in a way that is frustrating as all hell to listen to.

Lyrically, this album takes a deep step down too – I’ve been praising a few albums as of late for going for the more local approach instead of taking broad strokes, but these are a little too local, and sort of creepy – I really didn’t need to know that you “accidentally” had sex with a 17-year-old, or you were too soft, or whatever the hell is going on on “Rememo”. It never really finds a foothold, save for maybe 2 or 3 tracks.

I don’t wanna rip into this that much, but I just didn’t like this one that much. This album is what happens when an entire project is comprised of the mediocre parts of “Only By The Night”, from a less sharp, less mature, less confident, less commercially driven version of Kings of Leon, and while it’s probably more true to their authentic selves, I don’t think it makes for a very good album. Competent enough, sure, but everything about the lyrics & vocals on this one strike a nerve in a way that feels significantly more grating than anything on that last album. I understand why the other people in my group gave that album a 3, but after hearing this one, I wouldn’t be surprised if they dip down to a 2 or even a 1 here.

For me, I’m at a 2.5 that gets bumped up to a 3. I truly don’t think it’s THAT awful; individually, these are fine enough tracks, but as an album, it just sort of shoots itself in the foot as an incohesive project. I vaguely hear the appeal for this album over “Only By The Night”, and why people could rate this higher, but it’s just not my thing, I think. For my tastes, this really, really didn’t need to be on the list. Not in a Haut de Gamme way, but in a “this is really fucking mid” type of way.

This is like prototype Kings of Leon - their later stuff gets more tolerable. It came and went with nothing of value. 1*

No, I didn't like that. I listened to a large part of the album. Musically, I found the whole thing quite flat. But it would have been bearable if the singer's voice wasn't so awful. I gave up after half of the album, exasperated. 1/5

This is another formative album for me, impossible to rate subjectively! These guys were the height of coolness when I was a teenager, and this is them at their best. Not a bad song on here, and there's even one about Whiskey Dick. Don't think I've ever heard another band address that phenomenon, so it's got that going for it.

It's pretty basic, but still catchy and an easy enough listen. His vocals aren't as bad as some people are saying but they aren't exactly on par with Frank Sinatra so it lessens the quality

I've seen these guys live about a year ago. I enjoyed it and I'm not that big of a fan of them

Aha Shake Heartbreak is honestly what i expected from a Kings Of Leon album as in its nothing special but still fairly solid. I have only really heard some of the singles from Kings Of Leon so i always got the impression of them being a band that is a pretty obvious choice for any person to listen to. I still got that from this album, but this album definitely had quite a bit of blues elements which i was expecting and not expecting at the same time for some reason. The songs here are fairly good sounding and while not doing anything all too special or unique, they do their job as well as they can.
Best Song: Slow Night, So Long
Worst Song: Pistol of Fire

3.5 rounded up - I like the vibe and all but it did blur into itself a bit

Still good. Basically Creedence for the naughties.
Loads of good songs on here. Some tasty bass lines, particularly Slow Night, So Long. After this they were never the same again. Lost all their lovely grit.

I don't quite get the love for the Kings of Leon. It is a decent album, but nothing revolutionary. 3/5

That was a fun album. Some different styles a feelings to the songs. I would like to listen again sometime.

The instrumentals aren't bad, but I cannot stand the vocals. Something about them just grinds at me. 2/5

Really mixed feelings about this one. I saw these guys a year before this came out, opening for The Strokes. My thought then was that they were just an average opening band, and not even great for that purpose. I saw them again in 2009 at Austin City Limits and was blown away that they had improved greatly, almost to the point of being a different band. You can hear some of the seeds of what would become that better band in this album, but too much of the opening band sound to make it great. If later albums by Kings of Leon are on here, I bet I'll score them higher.