Song Review: Kings of Leon “Mary”

9-29-11

My least favorite, and even- most hated song on Come Around Sundown is the fourth track, “Mary”.  The intro, I must admit is great, a few strong notes from the melody and all of a sudden the whole song gets thrown right in your face. However, it is the rest of the song that I hate so much. The drums are just a 2 beat- slow and loud. Caleb Followill groans over the Doo-Wop melody of loud sighing in the background, about marrying, discos, and dancing. The vocals seem like they are in distress the whole time and the melody goes nowhere breaking down into darker and unfitting guitar riff for the very un-catchy chorus.

 Lackluster lyrics in the hook “No I wont, never one, make you cry, with a kiss, how I miss your goodbye” are reminiscent of too many rock and roll sounds that have already been over-produced. This honestly sounds like an Aeromith cover band. In addition, I could’ve sworn I had heard a rendition of this song in every good-guy wins the girl scene from every movie in the 80’s. If this song were a radio hit which thank god it isn’t, it could, in the long-term, wedge its way between “Brown eyed girl” and Jimmy Buffett in the playlist for 2-for-1 margarita night at your local bar/grill. This sounds like the type of song where half the drunk middle-aged women stumble around to dancing, and the other half, maybe a little too sloppy, find a newfound depression in the melody and start crying.

What really bothers me most about this song (besides the huge headaches I get from Caleb’s raspy country groan) is how little it fits in with the album. Besides being very uncharacteristic in relation the rest of Come Around Sundown, it is uncharacteristic because it is shallow in meaning. Every other song on the album does by no means, hand you the meaning, and always seems to enjoy something deeper behind the catchy guitar riffs. With “Mary” what you see is what you get, and I am less than thrilled by the view.

“Mary” gets a 1/5

Enjoy… I guess.