Looking back at the 12 tracks of “Can We Please Have Fun”, it’s time to saddle up. There’s a raw unpredictability to the band’s ninth album, a welcome return to the Kings’ early sawdust-and-beer days. Yes, we can definitely have fun here.

Brothers Caleb, Jared and Nathan Followill, and cousin Matthew Followill have put out a new album 21 years after their debut, “Youth and Young Manhood,” and it’s as good as their first recording and easily their best in years.

A punky, garage-like feel flows through many of the tracks, with cranking bass and drums and the vocals of Caleb Followill on tracks like “Hesitation Generation” and “Nothing to Do”. “Actual Daydream” has a country-inspired indie vibe, and the first single “Mustang” is angular and swaggering, while “Don’t Stop the Bleeding” is a sultry arena banger and “Nowhere to Run” is sure to get your heart racing. gives.

But it’s “Split Screen” that is the album’s brightest track, a slow track built around a guitar noodling and with mysterious lyrics that hint at midlife crises and parental angst. It’s hypnotic, and easily one of the band’s best, the perfect blend of minimalism with coiled power.

The album is produced by Kid Harpoon, who has produced albums by Harry Styles, Florence the Machine and Miley Cyrus. This is the first time Harpoon has worked with the Kings. The combo has somehow spearheaded the bloated, powerful Kings and brought them closer to the jagged sound they started out with.

Lyrically, Sex on Fire is replaced by crying babies and hair extensions on airplanes. But this is a band that, even in midlife, is embracing not its kittens, but its inner Mustang. “I wish I could be this bold all the time,” the lyrics go on “Split Screen” – perhaps a prayer for them, and for us.

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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