Kings Of Leon: Youth And Young Manhood 2LP Vinyl

Why you'll love it

This edition spreads the debut across two LPs in a gatefold jacket. It reached No. 3 in the UK, and Rolling Stone later ranked it No. 80 on its list of the top 100 albums of the decade.

This edition

2LP set
Gatefold jacket

About the album

Three brothers and a cousin from Tennessee, raised on the road by a travelling preacher father, walked into Shangri-La Studios in Malibu and came out sounding like a garage band who'd been raised on Southern rock and had very little patience. Ethan Johns produced most of it, with Angelo Petraglia handling the rest, and extra sessions took place at Sound City in Van Nuys and Ocean Way in Nashville.

Caleb Followill's yowl does a lot of the heavy lifting, but the rhythm section of Jared and Nathan swings like a juke joint and Matthew's guitar lines are all wiry hooks. "Molly's Chambers" is two and a half minutes of pure strut, "Red Morning Light" kicks the door in, "Wasted Time" and "California Waiting" made the singles cut, and "Holy Roller Novocaine" slows things to a sweaty Southern crawl before "Talihina Sky" closes on a tender note.

British audiences took to them first, with NME naming it among the best debuts of the decade, and stadiums followed within a few years. This is the record from when they all still fit in one van.

Also at Kops: more Kings of Leon on vinyl · browse Rock