‘O My Beloved’ brings Kings of Leon in new, disappointing directions

On Friday, Tennessee indie-rock staple Kings of Leon released their tenth studio LP “O My Beloved.” Spanning 13 tracks and nearly 50 minutes, the album offers a clear distinction from the band’s punchy tunes from the height of their popularity and paints a consistent but vague portrait of folky love and loss.

Formed in 1999 in Nashville, Tennessee by three brothers and their cousin, Kings of Leon’s now decades-long career has seen bursts of mainstream success and a consistent base of fans. The group’s popularity hit a peak in 2008 with their fourth studio album “Only by the Night,” scoring charting hits like “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody” that transformed the band into an international sensation.

In the 18 years since the standout album, the group’s sound has shifted from the Springsteen-esque explosive rock that propelled them to mainstream success to a twangy country-inspired side. With “O my Beloved,” audiences are immersed in this new style. The album’s highs bring a catchy sweetness to the folk-rock production, but its lows lend the project a generally monotonous and unengaging drawl.

Across the 13 tracks, singer and frontman Caleb Followill’s lyrical work struggles to inspire. For an album with “My Beloved” in the title, the lyrics often fail to project either the interesting specificity or the compelling universality that could draw in a listener. In “Blue Jeans and Diamonds,” the line “I think that we’re timeless / like blue jeans and diamonds” feels emblematic of the lyrical sets as a whole: stereotypical country imagery set to melodies without tension or flow.

In fact, much of the record’s production feels predictable and stale. While not by any means new to the band’s style, the four-bar guitar intro followed by a drum pickup formula follows through nearly every track, dulling the force intended by those moments. Some songs like “KOYSAR” and “Forever Endeavor” overproduce the later half of the song, precluding the creation of a diverse set of tracks.

That is not to say that “O My Beloved” lacks moments of charm or sweetness. With its crunchy guitar rhythm, “Rose” is likely the record’s highlight. The strings propel the track and sweet verses set the song apart from the rest of the album as complete, catchy and unique. While less interesting than “Rose,” the preceding song “The Hand” offers a cohesiveness of rhythm and lyric with a melody and delivery that echoes the sound of Noah Kahan.

While notably folksier than Kings of Leon’s early work, “O My Beloved” is also notably worse. Despite the distinct beauty of tracks like “Rose,” the album’s uniformity, predictability of production and uninspiring lyrical frameworks leave much on the table for rock veterans. Kings of Leon is nonetheless showing a sustained capacity to change their sound and explore new sonic ideas. What remains to be seen is if the band can use this capacity of change to create a diverse and compelling project.