KINGS OF LEON - Aha Shake Heartbreak 2xLP (180g Vinyl)

Label: RCA

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. 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.