source: Kings of Leon's Facebook page

It's time for a little new music! Kings of Leon's latest album "Mechanical Bull" was released last week, and is the band's first release since 2010 and their 2011 hiatus.

I find Kings of Leon quite fascinating as a band, because as long as they've been around and as much music as they've put out, their style and their music really hasn't changed all that much. I first heard of Kings of Leon a little after I took my amazing road trip South, and I was really into anything southern, including Southern Rock, which I'd never really before given a shot.

Yes, Kings of Leon's music has veered in a slightly more commercial direction over the years, most noticeably on "Come Around Sundown," the band's previous 2010 release. It's inevitable, really, like getting old and soft and fatherhood making you romantic and sappy (and add stringed instruments to your backing track ... and I'm not talking about the six-stringed kind).

But "Mechanical Bull" really reclaims a lot of that raw, harsh Southern Rock sound that took a backseat on "Come Around Sundown," and combines it with some of the mellower, more laidback melodies of the previous album. There's almost a Dylan-esque quality to some of the songs. Okay, maybe Dylan meets Springsteen.