I skipped the gym tonight but I
did wax my car and clean the interior, so that was at least a bit of a workout.
I always think of the Karate Kid when I wax my car. That was an inspiring movie
when I was a kid – I even tried Kung Fu for a week as a teenager (I was
terrible at it). Years later I tried fencing and was much better. Martial arts
are way easier when they give you a sword.
But I digress. It’s time to get on
with the next review. That way I won’t have to listen to the album again
tomorrow.
Disc 884 is….Hot Fuss
Artist: The
Killers
Year of Release: 2004
What’s up with the Cover? Some buildings. Based on the
characters on top of them, I presume they are somewhere in Asia. I tried hard
to find this cover interesting, but it just wasn’t happening.
How I Came To Know It: This album belongs to Sheila who
likes the Killers. I’m not as keen.
How It Stacks Up: We have three albums by the Killers. I’m going
to be positive and assume that “Hot Fuss” is the worst of them, making it…third.
Ratings: 2 stars
I admit
I enjoy beating up on the Killers. Not with the same zeal I take in hating
bands like Nickelback or Duran Duran, but still, I admit I don’t like this
band, and I enjoy telling people about it.
Some
bands are held responsible (rightly or wrongly) for a run of bad music they
inspire in their creative wake. Green Day is blamed for pop-punk, and Pearl Jam
is blamed for the throat vocals of knock-off bands like Creed. Both claims are
likely true, but the difference between those bands and the Killers is I
actually like those bands.
In the
case of the Killers, they were the vanguard of a decade of new top forty radio
music. The things they do have reverberated through the ages, and created what
feels like a whole new genre of pop music.
And what
exactly is that Killers sound? It starts with busy production, which sounds
like it was recorded in a studio made out of old trash cans. The music is busy
and dense with a soup of noise, and the instruments are banged away on with a
frantic energy that makes you think it is the work of a hyperactive child on the
edge of launching into a serious tantrum.
Of all
the instruments, vocalist Brandon Flowers bothers me the least. He can sing and
at least he sounds distinctive. As I noted on my review of “Day & Age”
(back at Disc 734) I admire Flowers’ range and the power he manages while
singing in a high register. The songs lack much in the way of emotional impact,
but that is more the songs than Flowers’ voice. He did write or co-write all the
songs, though, so we can at least blame him for that.
By their
third album, the band has settled down and learned to trust the melody but here
it is all about a desperate attempt to create energy, even if it isn’t the good
kind.
It isn’t
all bad, though. Most of the songs are just meh as opposed to offensive, and I
actually like one of the hits (“Somebody
Told Me”). It has a solid energy and a bit of a ‘too drunk at the party’
kind of feel, which is fun on a summer walk home.
I almost
liked “All These things That I’ve Done”
and it might have held me if it hadn’t gone for the oft-repeated but not very
clever phrase “I got soul but I’m not a
soldier.” The third big hit, “Mr.
Brightside” annoyed me when it first came out with all its pointless clash
and clangor. 10,000 forced listens in pubs, coffee shops, and mall bathrooms for
the past dozen years has not made me like it any better.
“Everything Will Be Alright” isn’t a hit,
but it is almost six minutes of meandering thumping, bumping and groaning. At least
it was accurate, in that it was the last song on the record, so in a way the
title ended up being true; it signified that I’d survived this less-than-pleasant
port of call on the CD Odyssey.
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