Hoong Wei Long
The last time The Killers headed into a studio, they produced their Americana-inspired sophomore album Sam’s Town.
It was a big, rough and tumble Springsteen-esque rock album that saw the band suddenly move away from its glitzy Vegas pop rock sound that brought them worldwide acclaim.
The quartet also threw out all their Kohl eyeliners and snazzy metrosexual outfits, trading them for leather jackets, denim and facial hair (which gave drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr, an uncanny resemblance to Jason Lee’s My Name Is Earl character).
Some critics, like the Rolling Stone magazine, panned the 2006 studio effort and felt that lead vocalist Brandon Flowers should have known better than to jump the shark for their sophomore album.
Two years passed, and the band released their third studio album Day & Age late last year (not counting 2007’s compilation album Sawdust). It was anyone’s guess which direction The Killers would take this time around.
1 + 2 = 3.5
Straight up, Day & Age is a mashup of the glamour pop rock (Hot Fuss) and burly punchy rock (Sam’s Town) undertones, and then some more.
The album kicks off with Losing Touch, a track that builds upon the general sound of Sam’s Town and gives it a Hot Fuss-esque sheen. Toss in a backing saxophone bit here and a screaming guitar solo there, and you get a catchy, well crafted pop rock song that will have no trouble rising fast on the pop radio charts.
Other tracks like Spaceman, A Dustland Fairytale and Neon Tiger follow closely to this formula and will likewise go down well with the top 40 listener.
But Day & Age extends beyond mashing Hot Fuss and Sam’s Town. With dance producer Stuart Price heading things, a club dance sound was never too far away from being included in the album.
The lead single Human is a clear example of this. Packing a mix of infectious house beats and dance-rock guitar lines (perhaps in a nod to the song’s grammatically challenged lyric “are we human or are we dancer”), it’s not hard to see a full-blown dance remix in the horizon for the song.
Then it gets a little weird…
The whole dance-vibe does venture into some strange areas in songs like Joy Ride, I Can’t Stay and The World We Live In.
Joy Ride and I Can’t Stay both unflatteringly sound like typical (and ubiquitous) soundtracks playing in the background of an island resort lobby. It’s just like Copacabana rehashed for 2008 (cue those bongo players and hula girls)!
Then comes The World We Live In, which left this UrbanWire writer wondering if the band was high when they recorded the song.
For 4 minutes and 40 seconds, The Killers dabbles so deeply into cheesy, cringe-inducing boyband pop that it left me wondering if Nick Carter was going to pop (no pun intended) out for some guest vocal work.
Forget the lyrics
Another qualm this UrbanWire writer had with Day & Age are its convoluted lyrics (Glass Onion anyone?).
While I’m not quite sure if Brandon Flowers has had any training in poetry, my gut tells me that lyrics like “She used to go by Jackie/ The cops, they’ll steal your dreams and they’ll kill your prayers/Take a number where the blood just barely dried” are just a bunch of words randomly spliced together.
Maybe seeking the meaning of these lyrics is just like how fans love to think that their idols winked specifically at them out of a hundred others – it exists only in their heads.
The Best One Of The Lot
The brooding epic Goodnight, Travel Well is certainly the standout track in Day & Age.
Quite unlike anything The Killers has recorded thus far, the dark and atmospheric features a dose of U2 and a slight Portishead vibe. Bringing in a strong horns and strings section, the track is impeccable in its arrangement and pace. Goodnight, Travel Well can definitely be heralded as a masterpiece by Brandon Flowers and co.
In A Nutshell
While Day & Age does have its fair share of misses, the times when it does click, it does so exceedingly well.
The album is fairly consistent in its musical direction, but will struggle to help the band establish any credibility beyond that of a solid mainstream pop-rock band.
For all that it’s worth, The UrbanWire gives Day & Age 3 out of 5 stars.
Tracklisting
01. Losing Touch (Sample)
02. Human (Sample)
03. Spaceman (Sample)
04. Joy Ride (Sample)
05. A Dustland Fairytale (Sample)
06. This Is Your Life
07. I Can’t Stay (Sample)
08. Neon Tiger (Sample)
09. The World We Live In (Sample)
10. Goodnight, Travel Well (Sample)