Musical geography is becoming ever more complex. With country bands coming from Norway and cool bands coming from France, there are no fixed points. Right now, I’m wondering what connects the hipper neighbourhoods of New York with Fagersta in rural Sweden and Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Not so long ago, the answer would be nothing. New York would produce clever art-rock; Mount Juliet some backward-looking boogie. And Fagersta? Best not to think about that. But here we have the new Kings of Leon album, delivered from the band’s house on the banks of Old Hickory Lake, in Mount Juliet, and it sounds eerily like the third part of a trilogy begun by the Strokes’ Room on Fire and kept bubbling by the Hives’ Tyrannosaurus Hives. Not that anybody’s copying; they all share new-wave urgency, a clear sense of their own identity and self-confidence by the bucketload. Speaking of which, Bucket, the first single, gives us a previously unimagined sound: Joy Division having fun. Razz crosses post-punk with Abbey Road Beatles, while Taper Jean Girl veers towards 1970s Stones. The least likely reference comes in King of the Rodeo. Have they been listening to the Cars? (Maybe the Cars were big in Sweden too.) If you liked the Kings’ debut, this is even better.

Hand Me Down

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