''Only by the Night'' (stylized as ''>ONLY_BY_THE_NIGHT>'') is the fourth studio album by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Kings of Leon Kings of Leon is an American rock band formed in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill, and their cousin Matthew Followill. The band's early music was a blend of Southern rock and gar ...

, released worldwide in September 2008. Writing for the band's fourth album commenced just days after the release of their third, '' Because of the Times''. The album was recorded by producers

Jacquire King Jacquire King (born January 11, 1967) is an American record producer, recording engineer and mixer. King has worked with such notable artists as Kings of Leon, Tom Waits, James Bay, Kaleo, Modest Mouse, Shania Twain, Buddy Guy, Norah Jones, ...

and

Angelo Petraglia Angelo Petraglia (born May 5, 1954) is an American record producer and songwriter. He was a member of the new wave band Face to Face and is best known for his work with Kings of Leon. Early life He was born in the Bronx and grew up in Pelham, N ...

in April 2008 at Nashville's Blackbird Studio. ''Only by the Night'' experienced commercial success, peaking inside the top 10 of over 10 countries. The album was

certified Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...

the best-selling album in Australia, certified nine times platinum. It also went on to be the highest selling album of 2008 in Australia, the third best selling album of 2008 in the UK, winning two

Brit Awards The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...

, and the 18th best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK. Furthermore, two singles from the album have found high chartings, "

Sex on Fire "Sex on Fire" is the first single released from American rock band Kings of Leon's fourth studio album, ''Only by the Night''. The song gave Kings of Leon their first number-one single in Australia, Finland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, char ...

" coming in at number one in Ireland, the UK, Australia, and on the United States'

Hot Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

, and at number two in New Zealand. The album's second single "

Use Somebody "Use Somebody" is a song recorded by the American rock group Kings of Leon. It was the second single from the band's fourth studio album '' Only by the Night'' (2008), released on December 8, 2008. The single received heavy airplay in Scandinavi ...

" also charted at number two in the UK, and at number two in Australia, along with being the band's first top 10 hit in the U.S. The album was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 2009 Grammy Awards, with the song "Sex on Fire" receiving two nominations itself. Worldwide sales of the album exceed 6.2 million copies, according to a press release by the band. "Sex on Fire" came in at number one on the

Triple J Hottest 100, 2008 The 2008 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on Australia Day, 26 January 2009. It was the sixteenth countdown of the most popular songs of the year, as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station, Triple J. 2008 was also the first year ...

, with "Use Somebody" number three, "Closer" number 24 and "Crawl" number 70.

Production and recording history

In September 2007, lead singer Caleb Followill confirmed to ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' that tracks were already being worked on for a fourth album,''The Followill boys are ready to go on new record.''
''

'', September 3, 2007 only a few days after the release of the band's third album, '' Because of the Times''. Recording began in February 2008 in Nashville's Blackbird Studios with assistant engineer,

Lowell Reynolds Lowell may refer to: Places United States * Lowell, Arkansas * Lowell, California * Lowell, Florida * Lowell, Idaho * Lowell, Indiana * Lowell, Bartholomew County, Indiana * Lowell, Maine * Lowell, Massachusetts ** Lowell National Histo ...

. According to producer Jacquire King, the live performances of the main parts of each song were recorded onto 16-track

analog tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magne ...

and later transferred to a

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

system for

overdubbing Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...

and mixing. On June 23, 2008, the release date of September 22, 2008 was set and the new title was announced.

Release

"Crawl" was released via the band's website as a free download for a short time, although it was not the first proper single. The first single "Sex on Fire," was released September 15, 2008. The same day, music website

Last.fm Last.fm is a music website founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. Using a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of the tracks the user listens to, e ...

was the first to make the entire album available for streaming. The music video for "

" was later made available to stream on their website and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel. The song "

" was announced as the second single and released in December 2008. The song was a massive hit in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a hit in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, Australia and several other countries. The third single from the album was " Revelry," released March 2, 2009. "

Notion Notion or Notions may refer to: Software * Notion (music software), a music composition and performance program * Notion (productivity software), a note-taking and project-management program from Notion Labs Inc. * Notion (window manager), the s ...

" is the fourth single from the album. The video was released on June 1 and the song appeared on radio on June 29. The song was another success for the group, peaking at #1 on the Billboard

Alternative Songs Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

. In

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, the song "Manhattan" was released to radio as another single. The song spent four weeks on the singles chart and peaked at number 38 and reached number two on the National Airplay Chart. The song has also had heavy rotation on UK radio station's such as Xfm. Another fan favorite was the album's opening track "Closer," which features a three note riff by bass player

Jared Followill Kings of Leon is an American rock band formed in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill, and their cousin Matthew Followill. The band's early music was a blend of Southern rock and ga ...

that utilises a Boss ME50 multi-effects pedal to add a distinctive octave sweep reminiscent of the

DigiTech Whammy The DigiTech Whammy is a pitch shifter pedal manufactured by DigiTech. It was the first widely used effects pedal that could do foot-controlled pitch shifting effects. The pedal emulates sounds that a guitarist normally makes using the vibrato ...

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 63/100 based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. A discrepancy between ratings of the North American and the UK press can be noted. The U.S. online publications

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

and JustPressPlay gave the album a 3.8/10, 2/10 and 4/10 respectively, while the album received ratings of 5/5 and 4.5/5 from the UK's ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' and

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...

. Record sales showed it chasing

Coldplay Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University Col ...

's ''

Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends ''Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends'', often referred to as simply ''Viva la Vida'', is the fourth studio album by British rock band Coldplay, released on 12 June 2008 on the Parlophone label. "Viva la vida" is a Spanish phrase that tra ...

'' for the fastest selling album of the year in Ireland and the UK.

Accolades

''Only by the Night'' received a nomination for

Best Rock Album The Grammy Award for Best Rock Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the rock music genre. Honors in sev ...

at the

51st Grammy Awards The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 8, 2009, honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2008. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the b ...

with the single "Sex on Fire" receiving two nominations for

Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1980 and 2011. The award was discontinued after the 2011 award season in a major overhaul of Grammy categories. Beginning in 2012, all solo or duo/group ...

and

Best Rock Song The Grammy Award for Best Rock Song is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs in the rock music genre. Honors in several ...

. "Sex on Fire" was awarded with the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals on February 8. At the

52nd Grammy Awards The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards took place on January 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009. Neil Young was honored as the 2010 MusiCares Pe ...

the song "

" won the

Record of the Year The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without reg ...

, Best Rock Song and the

. The album was also awarded "2008 Album of the Year" by the UK's ''Q Magazine'', as well as ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' voting it as the 20th best album out of their top 50 Best Albums of 2008. The album was also awarded Best International Album at the

BRIT Awards The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...

, the

Meteors A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mic ...

and the

Juno Awards The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

Commercial performance

''Only by the Night'' was a massive success in the United Kingdom. At the end of September 2008, the album entered the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

at number one, with first week sales of over 220,000 copies. In February 2009, it was announced that ''Only by the Night'' is currently the biggest selling digital album of all-time in the UK, surpassing

Amy Winehouse Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer and songwriter. She was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul, rhythm and blues and jazz. A membe ...

's ''

Back to Black ''Back to Black'' is the second and final studio album by English singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse, released on 27 October 2006 by Island Records. Winehouse predominantly based the album on her tumultuous relationship with then-ex-boyfrie ...

''. Sales for 2008, in which ''Only by the Night'' was the third biggest selling album of the year, were 1,181,640 and a similar level of 1,078,555 for 2009, when it became the fifth biggest selling album of the year. It sold a further 340,000 units in 2010 and was placed at number 31 on the year-end chart. As of March 27, 2011, ''Only by the Night'' has spent 131 consecutive weeks inside the Top 75. As of October 2016, it has sold 2,916,779 copies in the UK. In the U.S., the album debuted at number five on the ''Billboard'' 200, but fell to 20 the following week. It then dropped as low as 78, but then gradually moved back up the chart. After 48 weeks on the chart, the album managed to outpeak its debut position, climbing to number four. It has also managed to achieve a 2× Platinum certification for shipping three million copies. In Canada, the album debuted at number four on the

Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocea ...

, eventually peaking at number two. In Australia, the album has been certified 9× Platinum, selling over 630,000 copies. It re-entered the Australia charts at 43 in September 2010. The album was the highest selling album of 2008 in Australia. The album has also been a hit in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, spending over thirty consecutive weeks in the top ten, including nine non-consecutive weeks at number one. It finished 2008 as the second highest selling album and has been certified 5× Platinum by

RIANZ Recorded Music NZ (formerly the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ)) is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell recorded music in New Zealand. Membership of Recorded Mus ...

. In Germany, ''Only by the Night'' has spent 104 weeks on the country's Albums Chart making it the 50th album to spend two years or longer on that chart. Worldwide sales of the album exceed 6.2 million copies, according to a press release by the band.

Track listing

Personnel

;Kings of Leon *

Caleb Followill Kings of Leon is an American rock band formed in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill, and their cousin Matthew Followill. The band's early music was a blend of Southern rock and ga ...

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

Matthew Followill Kings of Leon is an American rock band formed in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill, and their cousin Matthew Followill. The band's early music was a blend of Southern rock and ga ...

–

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

, vocals,

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

on "Frontier City" and "Notion" *

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, vocals *

Nathan Followill Kings of Leon is an American rock band formed in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill, and their cousin Matthew Followill. The band's early music was a blend of Southern rock and g ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, vocals ;Additional personnel *

– production, keyboards on "Revelry" *

– production, keyboards on "Use Somebody" * Alex Fraser – triangle * Lowell Reynolds – second engineer * Ken Levitan & Andy Mendelsohn for Vector – management

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Awards

, - , rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;", 2009 , International Album ,

, , - ,

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

, , - , Best International Album ,

Meteor Awards A Meteor Ireland Music Award was an accolade bestowed upon professionals in the music industry in Ireland and further afield. They had been bestowed each year since 2001, replacing the Irish Recorded Music Association, IRMA Ireland Music Award ...

, , - , Best Album ,

NME Awards The ''NME'' Awards is an annual music awards show in the United Kingdom, founded by the music magazine ''NME'' (''New Musical Express''). The first awards show was held in 1953 as the ''NME'' Poll Winners Concerts, shortly after the founding of ...

, , - , Choice Music: Album (Group) ,

Teen Choice Awards The Teen Choice Awards is an annual awards show that airs on the Fox television network. The awards honor the year's biggest achievements in music, film, sports, television, fashion, social media, and more, voted by viewers living in the United S ...

, , - , style="text-align:center;", 2010 , Best International Album ,

, , -

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Only By The Night 2008 albums Kings of Leon albums Albums produced by Jacquire King Brit Award for International Album Juno Award for International Album of the Year albums RCA Records albums