The Kings Of Leon: Youth and Young Manhood

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * *)

The Kings of Leon - three young southern brothers and a cousin raised on the road by their father, a now-defrocked preacher - sure have it made in the band biography department. Fortunately their debut album bears up to that instant legend with its southern-fried punk'n'roll which evokes an odd collision of the Stones, Confederate rockers like the Allman Brothers and the 70s New York rock references which were last dusted off when the Strokes started causing a similar fuss.

Frontman Caleb Followill sings in a voice that mostly suggests he's done a lot more bad livin' than is possible for a man of his tender 21 years, while the lyrics are suitably southern gothic in their tales of sex, drugs, guns and death - but with due deference to the man upstairs ("the Lord's gonna get us back, I know, I know," he pleads in finale Holy Roller Novocaine).

There are infectious, instant rock thrills on the likes of opening track Red Morning Light, Happy Alone, and Spiral Staircase (though that last one does sound like South Park's Cartman singing a Violent Femmes song).

They do slow and seedy just as well, too, on the bluesy Joe's Head and the very Velvet Underground Trani.

No doubt they'll be anointed "saviours of rock'n'roll" any day now, and the Kings' opening sermon suggests they're well up for the job.

Label: BMG