Kings of Leon has garnered both positive and negative publicity over the years, but on the band’s new album, Mechanical Bull, the members seem to finally find the middle ground for which they have been striving. The band has had nearly a decade of platinum records, Grammy awards, and public breakdowns, specifically lead singer Caleb Followill’s intoxicated meltdown at a Dallas concert in 2011.

In their sixth studio album, the four Followills seem to have taken everything they’ve learned through their ups and downs and compiled it into a diverse album full of emotional understanding. Combining classic southern rock anthems with slightly slower, atmospheric ballads, Mechanical Bull is like a walk through the history of the band, taking every style of music the group has ever produced and blending it into one cohesive album.

“In some weird way this record was kind of a reflection for us, kind of a trip down memory lane to where we didn’t police ourselves so hard, ‘that’s not gonna fit on this record, that doesn’t go with this or that,’” said drummer Nathan Followill in an interview with Billboard magazine.

Kicking off the album with the debut single “Supersoaker,” Kings of Leon seems to declare its power right off the bat in the group’s quintessential style. Played in a similar tone are “Temple” and “Coming Back Again,” both of which seem to highlight the challenges the band has faced over the years and its determination to continue its success even in the face of such negative publicity, especially following the aforementioned meltdown.

The mix of funky, tempo-changing beats of “Family Tree” and “Rock City” and the love-song ballads found in “Wait for Me” and “Beautiful War” emphasizes how Kings of Leon is branching out from its usual southern, arena-sized ballads. My personal favorite song on the album, “On the Chin,” is drastically different than anything Kings of Leon has produced before because of its simplicity and purity that is often muddled by the big-band feeling of the group’s other songs.

“It’s a beautiful feeling to play that song,” said Nathan Followill when talking with Billboard. “The beauty of it is in its simplicity. It is a full band song, but it can still have that feel and that emotion of super-broken down, nothing’s forced, no one’s jacking off all over the song trying to make it more than it has to be.”

This album is both aggressive and sentimental, with all four of the Followill boys contributing to what could be the Kings of Leon’s comeback album following past dramas. Some of the songs can be played in a sold-out arena in Austin and some can be played with an acoustic guitar in a coffee house, and that is what is so impressive about Mechanical Bull: there is not one singular type of music found within it. All of the songs have the classic Kings of Leon swagger that has become an identifying factor in the band’s music, but by showing the different sides of its music style, Kings of Leon is reestablishing itself as a rock band that will be remembered for quite a long time.