Killers, The - Day and Age (Album)
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» The Killers - Hordern Pavilion, NSW - January 26, 2007
If you want proof that 2008 has been a relatively lacklustre year for music, look no further than November’s ‘KKK’ triple threat; Kanye West’s over-indulgent vocoders, Beyonce Knowles’ woeful double disc, and now the Killers’ third album which sees them straying even further from what it is they do well, for no apparent reason. Sorry, we’ll take that back, there’s a perfectly legitimate excuse for why Day and Age is so ludicrously cheesy, and it stems back to Kanyeezy; Brandon Flowers’ head has gotten so large that he refuses to take advice from anybody who politely reminds him that he is not a demigod of rock n’ roll. Brandon the Mormon has always been a presumptuous kid, bursting at the seams with poetry and song, all while channelling late eighties synth-pop stars with surprising success. That was cute four years ago, but now the pomposity is starting to lose its’ sheen.
The predicament lies with a band who cut their teeth on indie stompers like Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me, seething with sex and intrigue which apparently Flowers stopped caring about somewhere down the line. Spaceships, mysterious dancers, aliens, hell, they’re all here. But things the average listener can relate to, not really.
First single Human illustrates this perfectly; the blitzkrieg of keyboard washes completely defeating the purpose of having a drummer, bass player of guitarist, while Flowers wails in the painful upper register he found on the band’s last outing but still hasn’t managed to conquer. He’s a fantastic vocalist, when he realises his limits and loosens up a little, such as in the delightfully tropical I Can’t Stay, the heavens almost open. The problem is all the war-like, massive anthems like Losing Touch and countless others, where The Killers take on Coldplay, U2 and Phil Collins all at once, and get absolutely slaughtered.
You can’t fault their ambition (whatever they decide it to be this year), and when they get the wheels moving in sync, The Killers are a force to reckoned with. But shunning what makes one popular in order to pursue delusions of stadium grandeur is A Crippling Blow to any fan. Hopefully this is just an awkward teenage stage, and the best is yet to come.
