Kings of Leon have partnered with The Weather Channel to release a groundbreaking lyric video for their new single “Cold Blue Dawn,” dropping on Wednesday, Sept. 30. The mesmerizing clip utilizes NASA Landsat satellite imagery to spell out the song’s lyrics using natural Earth formations ahead of their upcoming tenth studio album, O My Beloved.
The Bottom Line
- The Collaboration: Kings of Leon teamed up with The Weather Channel for a first-of-its-kind lyric video for their single “Cold Blue Dawn.”
- The Visuals: The clip uses satellite imagery from NASA’s Landsat program to spell out lyrics using mountains, rivers, and coastlines.
- The Release Schedule: The track comes from the band’s upcoming 10th studio album, O My Beloved, scheduled for release on November 6.
How an Internet Meme Sparked a NASA-Backed Visual Feat
Pop culture is built on unexpected crossovers, but few feel as organic yet surreal as a rock band joining forces with a meteorological broadcast network. The partnership traces back to earlier in September, when The Weather Channel posted a viral clip on social media pairing weather formations with the band’s 2010 single “Pyro.” The Followills, long-time fans of the network, spotted the post immediately.
That conversation unlocked access to decades of planetary data. The result is a music video that trades standard typography for actual geography, deploying satellite imagery from NASA’s historic Landsat program.
“My family was already die-hard Weather Channel followers,” singer Caleb Followill noted in a statement regarding the genesis of the project. “So we saw what they did with our song immediately and thought it was beautiful. We learned they were making music a larger part of what they do and we reached out immediately to try and do something together.”
Translating Earth Science into Rock and Roll Poetry
The song itself, “Cold Blue Dawn,” serves as a midtempo reflection on the dreams and disillusions of the touring lifestyle. Lines like, “As a kid I would visit the home of the King / Rock n’ roll fantasies and dreams / Start to take hold,” take on an expansive quality when juxtaposed against literal topography.
Instead of standard text graphics, every letter of the song’s lyric is formed out of natural landscapes captured from orbit. Rivers curve into loops resembling cursive scripts, while snow-capped mountain ranges and sun-baked deserts shape individual consonants and vowels. Viewers briefly pull back to appreciate the scale of the planet before the frame cuts to archival footage of the band enjoying the great outdoors.
| Project Detail | Specification |
|---|---|
| Song Title | “Cold Blue Dawn” |
| Upcoming Album | O My Beloved (Releasing Nov. 6) |
| Visual Partner | The Weather Channel & NASA Landsat Program |
| Upcoming Live Appearance | Austin City Limits Festival (Oct. 9) |
Launched way back in 1972, NASA’s Landsat program has quietly captured millions of images of the Earth’s natural formations for use in agriculture, geology, forestry, surveillance and education. Those files have now found an unlikely home in music video history.
“Weather isn’t the backdrop to our lives, it’s part of the story,” explained Rohit Agarwal, CEO of The Weather Company. “This collaboration with Kings of Leon brings that idea to life in a completely new way, using science and creativity to remind us just how extraordinary it is to experience the world around us.”
Paving the Way for O My Beloved
Following the release of their 2024 album, Can We Please Have Fun—which reached No. 35 on the Billboard 200—Kings of Leon are once again steering clear of conventional rollout playbooks.
By bypassing traditional lyric video animations in favor of government-funded satellite feeds, the band is effectively attaching high-art environmental aesthetics to a traditional promotional cycle. With O My Beloved slated to drop on November 6, and a high-profile live slot locked in for the Austin City Limits Festival on October 9, the timing of this visual experiment could not be sharper.
Whether this sparks a broader trend of bands digging through government scientific archives for visual inspiration remains to be seen. For now, the Followills have proven that even after decades in the spotlight, they can still catch the music industry completely by surprise. How are you liking this cosmic visual direction for the new era? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
