Hear Kings of Leon’s Vibrant New Single ‘Around the World’
Kings of Leon mix funk and twang on their vibrant new single “Around the World.” Over springy electric guitar, four-on-the-floor drums and Led Zeppelin-esque clavinet, Caleb Followill croons about his many conquests: “The stormy gates and the maiden Pearl/ All around the world, all around the world/ I lost myself and found a girl.”
“Around the World” is the band’s third single from upcoming seventh LP, WALLS. The Nashville rock band recorded WALLS (or We Are Like Love Songs) with producer Arcade Fire producer Marcus Dravs to push the band in a new direction. “[Dravs] just said things that nobody had ever said to us,” bassist Jared Followill told Billboard. “Like, ‘I don’t like that song, that’s not good, we can move on from that.’ … He’d be like, ‘OK, now play it like the Sex Pistols.’ And then you’ve turned a slow song into a fast one.”
The band shifted gears sonically on WALLS, as Caleb told Entertainment Weekly. “We’re trying to change people’s perception of [us],” he said. “We have more depth on this album and more situations where we dipped our toe in before but never committed. Now we’re wanting to dive in. I know this is a pop-driven world and what we do isn’t necessarily at the top of the heap of music that people are listening to, but I feel like once people discover this album, it’s going to change them.”
Watch Pearl Jam cover Neil Young with Kings of Leon, RHCP members.