Aha Shake Heartbreak

Kings of Leon | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 22, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B00078XKD4
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (208 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,946 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #48 in Music > Rock > Oldies & Retro > Garage Bands

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Nomadic Southern evangelist Leon Followill may take soap suds to the mouths of the kinfolk wunderkinds--his three sons and a nephew--in Tennessee quartet Kings of Leon, whose second album spins enough cuss phrases and sexual allusions to leave Dolly Parton flushed. But the peculiar 20-something longhairs also fuel up on a filthy shotgun bass and relentless guitar riffs, complementing the delightfully discordant drawl of vocalist Caleb Followill to whittle a 35-minute grab bag of garage rock, English blues, sixties psychedelia, London Calling-ska, spaced-out country waltzes and front-porch, red-state revelry. Without revising its 2003 debut Youth & Young Manhood, producer Ethan Johns (The Jayhawks, Ray LaMontagne) steers the band down a similar mischievous road, integrating poles-apart rhythms and techniques into an energized jumble of rotating tempos and lyrical bombshells. Putting faith in earth-shakers like "Velvet Snow" and "Pistol Of Fire," the wound down and pleasing "Milk" and its yodeling cousin "Day Old Blues," the Kings ultimately escape Preacher Leon’s retribution, rendering him speechless--save for a simple "amen." --Scott Holter

Product Description

Aha Shake Heartbreak demonstrates a new level of musical creativity for the band but also retains all the raw vitality and emotion that made them so irresistible in the first place.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars KICKS THE CRAP OUT OF THE DEBUT (4.6 stars) December 16, 2004

By Cary S. Whitt

Format:Audio CD

First things first.

This is not like the debut album. Aha Shake is much more dynamic record. It stops and starts on a dime and the music has been pushed a bit more in all directions. Now don't get me wrong, it's still the same basic sound found on Youth and Young Manhood, it's just a bit more polished and thought-out in all areas.

You get indie-style radio friendly rockers like King Of The Rodeo and (the first single) The Bucket. But you also get a nice mix of slower numbers like Milk and Day Old Blues. The main difference from the debut is the slow numbers do MUCH more than slow the tempo. Milk is almost experimental in it's sparce arrangement and vocal delivery, while Day Old Blues pushes the idea of what is a chorus.

I found this record just as enjoyable as the first but I feel it has more to offer for the long haul, and that's just one reason why it's been one of my favorite records this year.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars CANT PLAY ON iPOD Digital Rights Management garbage from BMG March 11, 2005

By T. J. Eaton

Format:Audio CD

It breaks my heart to give this disc 1 star, because it is fantastic. It is awe-inspiring and balls out freakin rock n roll the likes of which this world needs more of. And I love it. The problem is that the Digital Rights Management nonsense that BMG and RCA have forced on their consumers with this disc is insufferable and should not be tolerated. The issue is that you CANNOT play this disc on your iPod. Not only that, but the lable FAILS TO MAKE THIS CLEAR in any of the packaging on this disc, which means that you don't find out you are screwed until AFTER you blow your ten dollars and get this home.

This is seriously a giant middle finger to consumers. Who in thier right minds would release, in this day and age, a product that is unusable on a technology that is embraced by 99% of the potential audience? And it could only be outright greed that would force a company to overlook mentioning this fact to its customers. The album is available for download on iTunes. How hard is to put some kind of notification on the CD packaging that would have enabled me to not waste 10 bucks on the CD and instead download it from iTUnes?

Finally, to play this CD on your computer, you are forced to download a piece of software called MediaMax. I'm sorry but I refuse to put a piece of potential data mining software on my system simply to listen to one band's music. Who knows what kind of security holes are in this piece of software.

All in all, BMG, RCA and the Kings of Leon should be ashamed of this. FIX IT. And I want my ten dollars back.

68 of 79 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Best Album of the Year...worst DRM October 31, 2005

By James L. Barnes

Format:Audio CD

I feel pretty strongly that this album is the best album this year. Seriously. Songwriting, musicianship, production are all far outside what anyone else is doing today in modern music. The sound of this album is completely unequaled when compared to most other current recordings.

That being said, the DRM appears to be far worse then everyone here is claiming. There is evidence that Sony is employing rootkit techniques to install hidden files on your PC that cannot be removed. Not being able to easily copy files to an iPod is one thing, installing hidden unremoveable files on your PC is another.

Do a google search for "Sony" and "Rootkit", or check out this site:

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