Listening Station: Kings of Leon, Ed Harcourt, Mogwai, Hernan Cattaneo

Kings of Leon earn their crown with Heartbreak

Kings of Leon

Aha Shake Heartbreak

This year, Kings of Leon will rock some people out of their suspenders and make others retch like hillbillies on a three-day moonshine bender. Bespectacled hipsters will hail the band as saviors, old hippies will dismiss them as hacks and vice versa. Many U2 fans will wonder what the fuck this scraggly quartet is doing opening for Dublin's golden boys. In the end, it will come down to a single question--really more a meditation on the nature of music: Can a frontman that yowls like the human incarnation of Bill the Cat and a drummer that makes Meg White sound like Neil Peart actually be worth the dogged devotion of "serious" music fans?

In a word, yes, but Kings of Leon's challenge to music history goes well beyond its stubborn rejection of tone and melody. Composed of three shaggy-haired brothers--all the offspring of an itinerant Southern preacher--and a similarly coiffed cousin, Kings of Leon seems the obvious heir to sub-Mason-Dixon guitar-rock magnates like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers, yet the band's music defies even the most basic tenets of Southern rock. It's boogie stripped down to three chords--a sound that might be called minimal if minimal had the power to rock like a cherry bomb flushed down a public toilet. This was true of the band's 2003 debut, Youth and Young Manhood, and is even more true of this year's hellbent follow-up, Aha Shake Heartbreak.

Recorded live in the studio, Aha Shake Heartbreak resounds with menace and abandon--all of it piloted by the gravelly timbre of lead singer Caleb Followill. It begins predictably enough--crashing cymbals, jangling guitars--but just as the lead track reaches full gallop, it rears back into a jazz-inflected coda. "Rise and shine, all you gold-diggin' muthas," Caleb rasps on "Slow Night, So Long." "Are you too good to tangle with a poor, poor boy."

It's an unusual opening, but one that neatly sets the table for what's to come--a 13-track country buffet (minus the sneeze guard) of angular riffs, raggedy rhythms and a variety of grunts, barks and screeches. There's "Razz," which could be funky if it weren't so jagged, and "Taper Jean Girl," which would be jagged if it weren't so funky. And then there's "Milk"--the album's unexpected centerpiece and the most lovely song that will not be sung by Cat Power this year. Clearly, the Followill brothers wouldn't recognize a guitar solo if it reared up from the grass like a frightened rattlesnake, but "Milk" is a surprise--a rawboned, new-wave love song that rises out of a flat synth drone. It's here where the shake meets the heartbreak, where the Kings earn their crowns.--Newt Briggs

Mogwai

Government Commissions: BBC Sessions

1996-2003

Mogwai's post-rock is the stuff of plodding deliberation and zen-like bumbling; like its brethren at the forefront of the slowcore sound, the band separated the rock from roll--and turned that roll into a meditative, slow-motion somersault. Government Commissions corrals 10 of the band's songs recorded with the BBC's late John Peel, but this is less a retrospective than a confident flexing of the band's musical range. With its 18-minute epic bruiser "Like Herod" as a fulcrum, Government Commissions spans the band's discography--from Young Team to Rock Action to Come on Die Young--and proves, as Mogwai always has, that a slow pace doesn't mean compromised power. Just check out "New Paths to Helicon Pt 1"--imagine a space opera written in homage to the sunrise--or the way "Superheroes of BMX" spirals into a drilling squall, spiced with piercing feedback; or the woolly majesty of "Like Herod," which offers one of the most sublimely punishing experiences in modern music. Tying Commissions together is the signature studio finesse of John Peel, who understood well the rocking dynamic Mogwai is aiming for: If it's too slow, you're too old.--Andrew Kiraly

Ed Harcourt

Strangers

Don't let that introductory guitar squall fool you--Ed Harcourt hasn't gone My Bloody Valentine on us. Strangers, his third album, sees the British singer-songwriter punctuating his piano-dominant alt-pop with showy string and horn touches; the wailing axe in opener "The Storm is Coming" not only sounds like an inclement harbinger, but represents just one ingredient of the song's instrumental vibrancy. Throughout Strangers, Harcourt successfully makes the case for his evolution as both a craftsman and a tunesmith, placing him in the same company of auteurs like Rufus Wainwright and Joseph Arthur. On the instantly endearing "This One's For You," he incorporates a tremelo six-string, a Wurlitzer and a trumpet--in one take, no less--to mold a distinctly boozy mood, though his vocal melodies are what ultimately give the number its charm. There's also a range of emotions and lyrical themes that give the album a sense of balance. On the uptempo money shot "Loneliness," Harcourt counters his misery with an anthemic urgency somewhere between the self-embraced isolation of Morrissey and the dogged hopefulness of U2--just one example of how he showcases inspiration without the mimicry, and ambition without the pretension.--Mike Prevatt

Herně Cattěeo

Renaissance: The Masters Series Vol. 2

This year, South American Herně Cattěeo placed so high on the 2004 DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs list, he surpassed his mentor, global dance figure Paul Oakenfold. You can chalk up some of that to Oakey fatigue among the voters, but the rest of it lies in Cattěeo's mastery of underground house and his rising prominence around the world. On this second edition of The Masters Series from Renaissance, a leading clubbing brand in the U.K., the DJ/producer plunges a little deeper into ambient progressive house, going easy on the bass while avoiding overtly euphoric synth riffs and surging tempos. This ensures consistency and subtlety, two essential qualities of prog. However, that also means there isn't much by way of sonic or tonal variation, nor are there many moments of spontaneity. Though tracks by accomplished producers such as Nick Muir, Richard Morel, up-and-comer Tigerhook and even Cattěeo--who offers four productions of his own, including a re-edit of Underworld's sublime "Mo Move"--are immersive and well-programmed, the mix is almost too atmospheric and structured. Cattěeo's color-by-numbers effort here recalls prog mix albums from earlier in the decade, emphasizing that the format needs a real renaissance, and quick.--Mike Prevatt