Expectation was high, very high - this was their moment, could they shake the detractors? Still the column inches built up explaining and re-explaining the Pentecostal preacher pa called Leon and the itinerant wanderings around the Mississippi Delta - I mean come on! Enough is enough! Though the Kings themselves were still flogging it, the title of the album itself being a convention that Leon preached at while the boys did what? Swallow gospel and dream of stadium rock concerts with The Edge et. al? Probably not. U2 opened up the band to what is possible, for better or worse although the stand-out, forced anthem on the record, Fans is a great, great track, I can't see Bono so openly mocking the groupies, or is that what Caleb is stomping on? They are not going pop, the opener Knocked Up drags us through Malick's Badlands terrain for a seven minute eternity and you think so it's going to be like that, is it? Bring it on, so!

The U2 virus wasn't afflicting them like others that it did for, such as the lamentable Killers. The following track, Charmer, really peaks the interest, Southern rockers doffing their Stetsons to Black Francis, so put the cliche in the spittoon and get rollicking. They're in the mood for experimenting but like all lab efforts there are ones that don't germinate so well but damn it's ambitious! Gone are the three chord tricks and dirty ditties of Youth and Young Manhood. Reggae, funk and country are toyed with, there's a lot of gutsy rock and it works more often than not. It may try to be a tad over-grandiose, it's long, too long, they can't carry it for so long, throwing on the album again and again you become lost, it falls just short of greatness, but I'll take that. The Kings are answering back to 'those preppy boys in blue.'