Sunday, January 25, 2009
A+E, Music, Reviews

The Killers

“DAY & AGE” (ISLAND)

As jokes go, the Killers are a funny one. The most British of U.K. ’80s acts hails from that most American of cities (Las Vegas) and appears in the middle of the millennium, seemingly unaware that its music is a contemporary spin on the Cure, Tears for Fears, New Order and David Bowie. The joke may be on us for buying into the sham, but regardless of when it was released, there’s no denying the candy-coated hooks and shimmery melodies found on the Killers’ third album.
 
Rebounding from the overreaching, faux Springsteen-isms of its previous release, “Sam’s Town,” the band picks up where its 2004 debut “Hot Fuss” left off. The word “band” is used loosely, because this is frontman Brandon Flowers’ project, despite the joint credit of “Killers” on every track. It’s his vocals, broadly up-front, from which the rest of the sound cascades.

Flowers’ smooth Freddie Mercury falsetto on “The World We Live In” adds drama to over-the-top layers of keyboards that would make Keane jealous. The closing, nearly seven-minute “Goodnight, We Travel” builds tension from a skeletal drum beat, adding layers of arena filling, swirling synths so exaggerated it seems like a caricature of every act knowingly playing to the back rows. The soul horns on the opening “Losing Touch” are both bizarre and strangely appropriate.

The obvious craft that went into each tune is impressive, yet the irony is the giddy realization that even as a guilty pleasure, the Killers are laughing all the way to the bank. 3 STARS—Hal Horowitz