Kings of Leon have continued the current trend of arty and thoughtful music videos with their new single, "Beautiful War," a cut off their latest sixth album, "Mechanical Bull." Kings of Leon weren't kidding when they named their album: A mechanical bull figures prominently at the center of the band's new dramatic video, starring 'Tron: Legacy' actor Garrett Hedlund as a hot-tempered cowboy who supposedly struggling with his inner demons whilst trying to defend his pride, after a violent altercation at a dive bar, winds up in jail.
Described by the Guardian as "a slow-grower about love and fighting," the atmospheric ballad about two lovers kissing and making up after falling out was originally penned by frontman Caleb Followill the same weekend as 2008 hit single "Use Somebody" and recorded by him while drunk in the studio. The vocalist recalled on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio One show that he didn't remember the session, but producer Angelo Petraglia played it back for him the next day and encouraged him to flesh it out.
If Kings of Leon's new album "Mechanical Bull" find the Tennessee rockers settling into focused professionalism, their recent promotional efforts have cannily shown a willingness to expand the group's horizons. The gang from 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' did their strange, brilliant thing in an album promotional video. Now comes the video for arena-rock anthem "Beautiful War," and it turns out to be a pretty gripping short film. The song itself rings out and roars like an "Old Hickory Joshua Tree," while the evocative new clip, is a gripping western tale of a professional bull rider, star-crossed lovers and a life behind bars, certainly makes fighting look, well, not unattractive.
The clip was modeled on 1970s Westerns and was inspired by the '80s John Travolta film "Urban Cowboy." is just one part of an epic, nearly seven-minute story that chronicles two men and a woman who go out for a drink at a country bar and the repercussions of jealousy. Its themes of grand personal tragedy, certainly seems to be aiming for that. There are scenes of dancing, fighting brothers, a long walk of shame for an inmate dressed in a black-and-white cowboy outfit and, quite literally, a mechanical bull. It all adds up to a story that's both improbable and touching, and at the end of the clip, the clichéd warden character, who acts as an overseer à la Caesar, claps in approval.
Described by the Guardian as "a slow-grower about love and fighting," the atmospheric ballad about two lovers kissing and making up after falling out was originally penned by frontman Caleb Followill the same weekend as 2008 hit single "Use Somebody" and recorded by him while drunk in the studio. The vocalist recalled on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio One show that he didn't remember the session, but producer Angelo Petraglia played it back for him the next day and encouraged him to flesh it out.
If Kings of Leon's new album "Mechanical Bull" find the Tennessee rockers settling into focused professionalism, their recent promotional efforts have cannily shown a willingness to expand the group's horizons. The gang from 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' did their strange, brilliant thing in an album promotional video. Now comes the video for arena-rock anthem "Beautiful War," and it turns out to be a pretty gripping short film. The song itself rings out and roars like an "Old Hickory Joshua Tree," while the evocative new clip, is a gripping western tale of a professional bull rider, star-crossed lovers and a life behind bars, certainly makes fighting look, well, not unattractive.
The clip was modeled on 1970s Westerns and was inspired by the '80s John Travolta film "Urban Cowboy." is just one part of an epic, nearly seven-minute story that chronicles two men and a woman who go out for a drink at a country bar and the repercussions of jealousy. Its themes of grand personal tragedy, certainly seems to be aiming for that. There are scenes of dancing, fighting brothers, a long walk of shame for an inmate dressed in a black-and-white cowboy outfit and, quite literally, a mechanical bull. It all adds up to a story that's both improbable and touching, and at the end of the clip, the clichéd warden character, who acts as an overseer à la Caesar, claps in approval.
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