Kings of Leon's second album, Aha Shake Heartbreak, is a confusing blur. It only lasts for 35 minutes, and only about 14 of those minutes are worth keeping. The group's rollicking, aggressive sound only has an impact if the writing is also creative. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.

The album's excellent first three songs make up a few of those good minutes, and it seems that Aha is going to be a brilliant revelation (no play on the title intended). With its Pete Townshend guitar and Keith Moon drums, "Slow Night, So Long" makes the listener wonder "who" this group really is, and the song's surprising Latin coda is a nice, mature touch.

"King of The Rodeo" works even better, packing plenty of emotion and dramatic songwriting into one of the group's best compositions yet.

The energy isn't enough on songs like "The Bucket," an ineffective reworking of the Kings' "California Waiting," which was already massacred on the group's first album.

Then there are the slower songs. "Day Old Blues," which has nothing to do with the blues, and "Milk," with its repeated lyric of, "kill me," should feel more poignant than they do. Interestingly, these songs are the only ones in which it is possible to discern singer Caleb Followill's enunciation, if you can call it that. No, we're just not going to take the booklet's pretty boy photo seriously. A few other tracks make the formula work for the rest of those "peak" minutes, but they don't make the listener run home and listen to this CD. The Kings always seemed like a heavily manufactured band; by the end of Aha Shake Heartbreak, you're pretty sure of it.

-- Reviewed by Paul Weinstein