'Mechanical Bull,' music review

The group that broke through with a song anchored on the line “I Could Use Somebody” certainly could have used something these last two years. During 2010-11, Kings of Leon suffered the most public meltdown possible.

First, in October 2010, they released the CD “Come Around Sundown,” which took a creative and commercial nosedive from its smash predecessor, 2008’s “Only by the Night.” The next July, singer Caleb Followill appeared drunk on a Dallas stage, slurring, rambling and announcing he had to vomit before leaving halfway through the show, never to return.

The next month, the band canceled the rest of the tour without rescheduling the missed dates.

Not promising stuff.

What a relief, then, to report that “Mechanical Bull,” recorded after a year of wound-licking, represents a total rebound. The Tennessee band’s sixth disc boasts the most clear-eyed performances, finest writing and sharpest focus of KOL’s career. And the band seems to know it.

In key songs, they declare themselves born-again in the most direct possible terms. “I can feel it coming back,” Followill yowls in “Coming Back Again.”

“It’s the comeback story of a lifetime,” he echoes in a track called, yes, “Comeback Story.”

That title may be overstating things, but the sense of resurgence shows in nearly every track. The group revealed the first signs of its burnout on the last CD in a classic way — by relying more on a sound than on solid songs. The album seemed like a cynical bid to extend their stadium stardom by echoing the general style of U2, with an emphasis on the ping and chime of Matthew Followill’s guitar and the melodies reduced to chants.

The new CD leans on no such lazy techniques. Songs like the single “Supersoaker” or “Rock City” match the rousing, re-thought Southern rock that first fired KOL. The tunes are strong enough to be sung in radically different settings. The disc’s influences range from funk to arena-rock to folk-rock, each filtered through the group’s essential style.

Songs of loyalty trade places with ones of endurance, both themes deepened by the band’s familial connection. The group idealizes the subjects in the Springsteenesque “On the Chin” and in “Family Tree,” which has a melody and string arrangement that recall classic hits by Glen Campbell.

Two years ago, it seemed like King of Leon were letting the Black Keys eat their lunch, ceding the title of American’s best young rock band. “Bull” finds them yanking that title back decisively.