Kings of Leon kicked off their 2013 tour over the weekend at the BottleRock festival in California’s Napa Valley, and they performed a promisingly fiery new song. Though its title and how it might be released have yet to be confirmed, it’s likely that “Always the Same” (as YouTube posters are calling the song) will appear on the Nashville band’s first album since 2010’s Come Around Sundown. Bassist Jared Followill recently said of KoL’s upcoming sixth album, planned for a September release, “I thought we were going to make a really mature album, but I’m amazed how youthful it sounds.” That’s a fair description of “Always the Same,” which has a bluesy, wailing guitar solo and the forward propulsion of recent Queens of the Stone Age. “I put a shine in your eye, it don’t matter to me / ‘Cause it’s always this way, and I’m always the same,” frontman Caleb Followill booms on the song’s radio-ready chorus. The band’s next show is at Hangout Music Festival this Friday, and after that the group has nothing scheduled until New York’s Governors Ball Music Festival in June.
Watch Kings of Leon Debut Hard-Charging ‘Always the Same’ Live
