END OF REVIEW
Arizona reminds me of something but I can't quite put my finger on it, I've heard the melodies before but that doesn't really detract from the song. This is a beautiful closing track, aptly placed, it will make you feel sad and that's exactly what makes you listen again, and I have to say it's pretty effective. The main guitar theme is incredibly reminiscent to a lot of the more polished end of 70's early 80's bands that had to give a good contrast to the punk scene in order to remain relevant. It's unexpected from KoL but in the end it works brilliantly, even if it feels awfully cheesy. The solo here does have some soul, if only given to it by the context of the song. When I hear a good solo I always feel a sense of warmth within me, Matthew captures this warmth, but only for a few seconds, which makes the relative shortness of their solos more of a strength than a weakness. The final fade leaves you with expectations of more good things to come, in retrospect it certainly didn't come from their next album.
7.4/10
How this album SHOULD have influenced music is once again painfully obvious to me, the swagger, the rhythm everything is just done so well here. It feels raw at times which is also very good. The fact that the band is willing to experiment, to expand on their formula is incredibly good. The true influence of the album is yet to be seen, but I hope some bands adopt and expand on this formula, because Kings of Leon certainly didn't much to their detriment musically albeit not financially, which simply highlights the problem with music today. This album proves that you don't need all that much talent to make good music.