Kings of Leon - ‘Aha Shake Heartbreak’ + Southern Harmony
Ingredients: 1 1/4 ounces Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey, 3/4 ounce Southern Comfort peach liqueur, 4 ounces sweet and sour mix, 1 splash lemon-lime soda, 1 lemon wedge.
Mixing Instructions: Build over ice, stir and serve in a sour glass.
Notes: Trying to follow up a debut album as viscerally satisfying to the rock ‘n’ roll soul as 'Youth & Young Manhood' is damn hard work. Luckily, the Followill’s had a key creative ingredient on their side as they worked out their sophomore effort - obscurity. While the response to their music in Europe was immediate and massive, the scene in America at the time was dominated by boy bands and rock groups like Creed…the cultural equivalent of walking around with cotton-stuffed ears.
Thus, 'Aha Shake Heartbreak' began where number one left off, but with a natural progression of artistic maturity that resulted in downtempo songs like “Milk” and “Day Old Blues”, broadening the range that the foursome was capable of pulling off. The sound no longer felt like it was coming from the basement or garage, but it was still far from the stadium finding itself perfectly at home in a smoke-filled dive bar - intimate, emotionally jagged and raw. One of the greatest one-two punches in rock history, stir up a Southern Harmony and sit down with this album ONLY after listening to their debut in full.