fripodding and comforting: “use somebody” kings of leon

I’m not terribly familiar with Kings of Leon, yet I had to have iTunes Store help me out and preview of few of their essentials. Perhaps I need more time to get into their groove, since none of their other songs really struck me in the same vein as Use Somebody did. Or has.

I recently learned that I have a slightly deeper connection to this song than I originally thought. It’s definitely a “writer thing” to get entangled in a good song’s lyrics. And that’s what happened with this song, besides the melody, beats, vocals and overall musicality of this song. I’ll talk about that in a bit. But after jumping over to Songfacts.com, I read this interesting line: “Frontman Caleb Followill wrote this song about longing for somebody to have a cuddle with while feeling lonely on the road. He said on his band’s website: ‘It’s about being far from home.'” The nice thing is I sorta already had that impression before reading it. Plus the music video also gives that sense: being on tour but wishing to be home with someone special.

As for what attracted me to the song, I’d say first and foremost is Caleb’s voice. (I’ll add that, again, not knowing anything about this band, the face didn’t really match with the voice to me when I first saw a picture of them… but that’s just me.) I love the gravelly, rough, almost pleading sound of it. And then of course how he hits those “use” and “make” just before the chorus. Then those instrumental parts. To me, a song says more when it has less. As the lead is singing, you just hear the guitar until it starts to build to a climax. You can feel that rise until it explodes with the singing of he could “use someone like you” or for “make you notice [him]!” And I hope you do notice. This man is nearly crying for someone, anyone! That’s what I hear in this song, through his voice and music played.

The lyrics are pretty nice too. I admit, I had to look them up to get a better understanding, but it helped me like the song more when I did.

Off in the night, while you live it up, I’m off to sleep
Waging wars to shape the poets and the beat
I hope it’s gonna make you notice…
I hope it’s gonna make you notice…
Someone like me.

Man I love some good lyrics. And after listening to this song a few times, I feel that it’s a pretty passionate and powerful song and I’m glad I stopped to listen to the radio.