Posted on: December 17, 2008 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 0

Based on interviews alone, it’d be easy to dismiss The Killers as little more than naive keyboard rockers with laughably bombastic quotes about world domination or simply millennials who just discovered Depeche Mode and David Bowie and have a few more minutes left on their fame stop watch.

Granted front man Brandon Flowers comes off in magazines about as sympathetic as one of the Gallagher brothers, but to dismiss their music on these interviews alone is a mistake. With their third record, Day & Age, The Killers have turned in one of the most decadently fun records of 2008. Sure the sound is not painstakingly original like some of the more somber art rockers that turned in efforts this year (um, TV on the Radio), but it’s the CD you’re going to pop in again and again over the next few years. Songs like “Human,” with it’s in hard-to-shake and grammatically off chorus, and the bouncy “Spaceman” are among the best the band has recorded in their brief career.

Unlike their last effort, the polarizing Sam’s Town, Flowers & Company looked beyond Petty and Springsteen this time around for inspiration, opening up their influences to everyone from New Order to the Psychedelic Furs. There are one or two missteps on the 10 song record, (the saxophone solo on “Joy Ride” sounds like a soundtrack to Miami Vice), but far more stellar tracks make the record one worth owning. While The Killers may not scream indie street cred, Day & Age is one of the few albums released over the past 12 months that you’re still going to be listening to this time next year.

Top Tracks: “Human”, “Spaceman” and “The World We Live In”

Rating: 8 out of 10.

The Killers – Day & Age (CD) / 2008 Island / 10 Tracks

Leave a Comment