I’m on a roll lately (literally)
as this is my third review in three days. I suspect there are three reasons for
this:
- The albums have
been short enough to get through in one day.
- I haven’t been
sufficiently inspired to listen to them a second time.
- I’d like to
review more albums than I buy so one day this project actually ends.
Disc 734 is…. Day & Age
Artist: Killers
Year of Release: 2008
What’s up with the Cover? A desert scene at night, depicted as a bubble
mosaic. I feel like a lot of effort was put into this cover to create something
pretty unappealing.
How I Came To Know It: Sheila liked the Killers and had
purchased their earlier two albums. “Day & Age” was me buying her their new
release for her birthday. I try to make sure when I buy Sheila music I am not
picking anything that I would ordinarily buy for myself because that would be a
lame gift indeed.
How It Stacks Up: We have three Killers albums and of those three, I
like “Day & Age” the most.
Ratings: 3 stars
I try to
never hate a band just for the sake of hating them, but even the most musically
diverse of us fall short sometimes, and I admit that I have gone out of my way
to hate the Killers. Their first two albums just seemed like vacuous pop music
to me, and for a few years it was impossible to escape them. They blared out of
every passing convertible Beemer and if you sought to escape indoors, they were
usually playing in the pub as well.
Maybe I
like “Day & Age” the best simply because it is the one I was force-fed the
least. It didn’t do as well commercially and by 2008 I no longer had to sit and
fidget while the people around me fanned their faces and talked about how much
they liked the band.
I think
it is more than that though. For starters, I think “Day & Age” is a bit
more developed as a record, with stronger songwriting at its core and less
reliance on the clash and racket of earlier efforts.
It is
actually even more pop-centric than earlier efforts, and I like the way it
works in light brushes of electronica into the songs. I also like that the
production leaves a little space so your ear can appreciate the song as it
develops, rather than the previous two albums that seem more interested in
banging away on everything at once and hoping it works out. “Day & Age” has
songs committing these crimes – notably “Spaceman”
and to a lesser extent, “Losing Touch”
but it is thankfully less pervasive.
This
record can err on the other end as well, and ends up sounding too slick in places.
Also the band comes across as being very deeply in love with themselves and
their ideas, but at least there is more to love.
Love the
Killers or hate them, you can’t deny Brandon Flowers has a voice that is
solidly in the wheelhouse of the modern age. The high, almost falsetto power
and eighties delivery is like many other singers haunting the radio waves
(think Maroon 5). I don’t love or hate this sound – I’ve been through it once
already in the early eighties with Prism and Nick Gilder – but I will say it
has to be done just right not to sound fake.
Flowers
manages to walk the fine line on a few songs, particularly “Human” a haunting tale that asks “are we human, or are we dancer?”
Notwithstanding that logically both are possible, I find the question always
has me thinking about the tightrope dancer in Nietzsche’s “Thus Spake
Zarathustra.” It is likely just my own very unlikely connection here, but good
art is about connecting experiences in others. Kudos to the Killers for giving
me a little existential angst in the form of a pop song. No doubt the sugary
coating makes it go down easier.
“Joy Ride” is a funky track that evokes
fast cars and kissing pretty girls in them, and “A Dustland Fairytale” has the kind of tragic love in desolate places
that Springsteen might sing about. Not as good as Springsteen, mind you, but a
solid effort.
There
are some questionable production decisions, however; the West Indies steel drum
in “I Can’t Stay” that I managed to
forgive, and the eighties saxophone that I did not.
The
album ends with “Goodnight, Travel Well”
a directionless seven minutes of self-absorption that seemed determined to make
me reject this Killers album like I have all the others. I was sorely tempted,
but I just couldn’t do it. There is enough good stuff to make up for it.
If I
only owned one Killers album (which would be totally fine with me), I think “Day
& Age” would be it. I expect Killers fans would object to my choice, but I’ll
just remind them that I usually don’t like this band at all.
Best
tracks: Human,
Joy Ride, A Dustland Fairytale
No comments:
Post a Comment