thoughts on "radioactive"

much to my surprise, a few people have asked for an opinion/outburst/diatribe from me regarding the new kings of leon single, "radioactive." the only reason i could imagine there being any sort of demand for my opinions on the subject is because, at one time, early in the band's career, i was a very vocal fan and a patron of their art, and that after their last and unarguably most successful and publicly well-received album, i became a slight detractor. fair enough. my opinion on the song: i think it's okay.

i mean, it's better than okay. as far as radio singles go, "radioactive" is enjoyable and catchy. it also seems like it will have a little less staying power than "sex on fire" and "use somebody," which i think is a good thing (not because those two songs weren't great pop songs [because they were], but just because, you know, enough already with those two songs. there's something unsettling about seeing a mom in her car with her children singing along to a song that has a lyric about getting road head). so yes, "radioactive" is a bit better than okay.

but it isn't great. and i think the main reason this new single doesn't get me all hot under the sheets like almost all of kol's pre-only by the night musical output did is because, like most all of the songs on only by the night, it lacks the "formula" that i (and i think many others) found so appealing in the band to begin with. the formula, you ask? 1. caleb's nearly inaudible marble-in-mouth-and-occasionally-screamed vocals and often nonsensical lyrics. 2. jared's always inventive but never overpowering bass lines (which were not only the backbone of the songs, but essentially played the part of rhythm guitar). 3. matthew's competent and perfectly complimentary (but typically ornamental) lead guitar work. 4. nathan's propulsive and rhythmically complex drumming. the formula was perfect. and every kol song that contained those four key ingredients (allowing slight degrees of variation for artistic growth) was destined for greatness. on "radioactive" (and on much of obtn), however, the only ingredient that remains a constant is oldest brother nathan's drumming.

caleb is now straight-up singing for entire songs. i miss his mumbling-to-yelling-to-singing-to-screaming method. it was reminiscent of isaac brock and kurt cobain, two of my favorite rock singers. and although caleb's newfound fondness for full-on american idol-style emotive delivery is not inherently a bad thing, in practice, it usually ends up being a pretty bad thing, mostly because you can finally understand his lyrics, which have taken a sharp turn for the worse in recent years (regarding a young lady's fellatio encounter with a well-endowed gentlemen: "a choke and a gag, she spit up and came back for more"...whoof).

youngest brother jared's bass work, once a cornerstone of the band's song structures, has become laughable. and he's such an inventive bassist, one of my favorite making music right now. so it breaks my heart to hear him play bass all mark hoppus/blink-182-like. the bass in all of kol's big singles thus far ("sex on fire", "use somebody" and now "radioactive") is just single-note strumming and if i'm this bored just listening to these riffs, it makes me wonder what joy a bassist as talented as jared could possibly get from playing them.

for kol's first two albums (and to a certain degree on lp3), cousin matthew has always been extremely adept at peppering songs with perfect and subtle guitar licks in just the right spots, giving the tunes their mood and tone. but now he sort of only seems to have one setting: edge. constantly trying to get that arena-level u2 feel out of his fretwork. and, like some of the other stylistic transitions the band has made, matthew's movie to big spacey guitar licks is not inherently a bad thing. but i do think that that change, maybe more than any of the others, has been the driving force behind the band's new sound. and it saddens me to see a band that had managed to find their very own voice so early in their career, a feat many bands spend close to a decade trying to accomplish, make the move to something so derivative.

and don't get me wrong, i like "radioactive." i like it more than almost all of the songs on only by the night. and i'm very hopeful that the new album will be full of stuff like this. but i'm still bothered by the fact that i can almost hear the skeleton of an aha shake heartbreak song in "radioactive" (in fact, the band said that this is one of the first songs they wrote post-aha, pre-because of the times). i can imagine multiple mumbled verses, some more intricate bass lines, some pulled back guitar work, some little yelps and screams. and when i imagine these things, i can hear a new favorite kings of leon song. a "king of the rodeo" pt. 2. but back in the real world, i hear a kings of leon song i like instead of a kings of leon song i love.

all that being said, i've listened to "radioactive" five or six times while writing this. and i'm liking it a bit more each time. also, i've always found a lot of value in listening to songs in the context of the entire album. so perhaps, in it's proper place, this song will make even more sense to me. but for now, i sort of feel like i'm left listening to a ghost. it's comforting to know that there's something there, but in the end it's really just a reminder of what used to be.