Kings Of Leon are set to release their new album Mechanical Bull this September, their first since 2010’s poorly received Come Around Sundown, the fifth studio album that saw the Nashville arena rock stars shying away from the spotlight amidst touring cancellations, drunken rows, and rumours of a break-up.

Mechanical Bull is tilted as Kings Of Leon’s comeback album, with bassist Jared Followill describing he was “amazed” at “how youthful it sounds,” kick-starting the hype machine by saying it sounded “like a mix of Youth & Young Manhood and Because Of The Times.”

Now fans can hear first-hand what the bassist is on about with the official release of the lead single lifted from their sixth studio album, ‘Supersoaker’. The Followills first debuted their new single live last month when they premiered new material at the Governor’s Ball in New York City. While some fans may hear some of the Southern charm of their earlier work in ‘Supersoaker’s charging guitars and frazzled energy, not everyone is so pleased with the results.

Most notably among them, as TheMusic points out, is WAVVES frontman Nathan Williams, with the Californian ‘King Of The Beach’ taking to the band’s twitter account to voice his displeasure at now sharing a song title with Kings Of Leon. “Wait Kings Of Leon just released a single called ‘super soaker’??” he posted, before adding:

The boys from Nashville will be hoping to emulate the success of Only By The Night, which spawned a number of #1 hits, went on to sell over 600,000 copies in Australia and was certified 9x platinum, whereas Come Around Sundown struggled to sell a quarter of its predecessor with just over 140,000 sales in Australia.

But following the release of their 2010 album, the worst was yet to come for the group, who cancelled their entire US tour in August 2011 after they were forced to abandon a show in Dallas halfway through due to frontman Caleb Followill being spectacularly drunk, leaving the stage and refusing to return.

There were reports that his bandmates wanted him in rehab, although his mother denied such claims at the time. Their last Australian tour was also also wrought with difficulty. First postponed after drummer Nathan Followill had surgery on his arm and was unable to play, they then suffered a set back after Qantas messed up their flights, forcing then to travel through a convoluted route and amassing an incredible 24 hours flying time just to get down under.

Mechanical Bull is due to be released on September 24th via Sony/RCA.

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