Because of the Times
Because of the Times is the third studio album by American rock band Kings of Leon. It was released on April 2, 2007, in the United Kingdom and the next day in the United States. The album received generally positive reviews and appeared in numerous Top-10 lists for "Album of the Year. In 2009, "Clash" named the album number 3 on the "Clash Essential 50", a list of the most important albums released since the magazine's inception in 2004. Reception. Writing for "NME", Barry Nicolson said the album "cements Kings Of Leon as one of  the great American bands of our times". "Entertainment Weekly" called "Because of the Times" "an epic wide-screen movie of a CD and the band's best to date." Another reviewer described "Because of the Times" as "an accomplished album of unbelievable beauty and familiar, loveable grit. Kings of Leon is maturing wonderfully and with patience, not forcing anything musically or lyrically that doesn't sound natural." Some critics found the album inferior to the band's previous efforts. Dave Hood of Artrocker gave the album one star out of five, finding that "Kings of Leon are experimenting, learning, and  getting a bit lost." "Pitchfork" contended that ""Because of the Times" sound[s] suspiciously like a counterattack on womankind, launched from somewhere in the mid-1990s, deep inside a bruised, stadium-sized ego." The album was ranked #6 on "NME"s list of the best albums of the year and #31 on "Rolling Stone"s Top 50 Albums of 2007 list.