Tag: The Killers

The Killers – Run For Cover

Tom: Second single off the new album; it’s been out for a while, but the video’s new.

Tom: And it sounds like the Killers. It’s got their guitar sound. It’s got the structure and pacing of ‘Spaceman’. It’s even got the slight dip to minor key for one chord in the chorus.

Tim: Right: textbook Killers. Took me a while to get on board – that first verse in particular I found way too bass-heavy – but it had won me over by the time the second chorus rolled around.

Tom: This is a perfectly serviceable track. There’s nothing wrong with it. But let’s be honest: the trouble is we’re automatically comparing it to a track from thirteen years ago that’s still so popular that it keeps appearing in the Top 100 based on streaming alone.

Tim: Yeah, it’s weird – now you’ve mentioned it, I’m trying to think of any other bands or acts that are like that, and I’m not sure I can. However many great songs they have, it seems Mr Brightside will always overshadow them.

Tom: The Killers don’t just have a back catalogue: they have some songs that helped to define years of people’s lives. That’s a high standard to meet: and this just doesn’t quite get there. Still good, though.

The Killers feat. Richard Dreyfuss – Dirt Sledding

“Isn’t lovely when the bells come along?”

Tim: Festive outing number 10 for The Killers, and the third in a trilogy previously featuring 2007’s Don’t Shoot Me Santa and 2012’s I Feel It In My Bones. Long story short, Brandon Flowers is at the top of the naughty list, and Santa, played by Ryan Pardey, wants to murder him.

Tom: Wait, never mind Ryan Pardey: what on earth is Richard Dreyfuss doing there?

Tim: Well, have a listen, as I think, think, this might be the one to break through your humbug armour. Have a listen.

Tom: Nearly. Nearly.

Tim: Oh come now, JOY! As far as Killers Christmas songs go, I think has gone straight to number two – it’ll take a huge amount to beat The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball – but it’s back to that style, and there’s a lot of happiness in that video, with Santa and Brandon hugging it out at the end. Even if you’re weirded out by the jumping around in costumes, it’s all revealed at the end so it’s okay really. And speaking of the end, oh, isn’t lovely when the bells come along?

Tom: It is. And that’s a great chorus — with harmonies that remind me of Queen more than anything else, which I suspect is a deliberate style choice. But that schlocky-accent talking-bit completely kills it for me.

Tim: Yes – that is my biggest annoyance with the track as well. I could also do without quite such a mopey intro (though I get the need), but those aside this is just lovely, and I’m a particularly fan of the donkey stumbling around in the background. So, ultimate test: are you feeling festive yet?

Tom: Not yet. Not quite yet. But it’s close.

Tim: Hmm. I’ll wear you down in the end.

Saturday Flashback: The Killers – Human

“More than makes up for last week’s awful ukelele.”

Tim: Last Saturday I moaned about a track on the work playlist that made me grumpy. This week, let’s have a track from it that everybody can entirely agree is fully brilliant.

Tom: Oh, man, I have so many good memories of this song.

Tim: Because for all that I love europop and key changes and that – man, this is just wonderful. So what if the chorus doesn’t make much sense? And so what if it probably doesn’t need those last couple of chorus lines at the end? Because just everything else.

Tom: It’s difficult for me to give any kind of unbiased view of this track, because I have so much associated with it. But what stands out for me is that… you know, I don’t have the musical knowledge to explain what it is, but whatever key change happens during that middle eight. That. More of that, please.

Tim: The melody and the instruments, the earnest singing, the everything – it’s just fantastic, and more than makes up for last week’s awful ukelele.

The Killers – Shot At The Night

The Killers have gone and done electropop.

Tim: The obligatory new single from the upcoming Direct Hits singles collection, this is produced by M83.

Tom: Ooh, now that’s exciting. That’s a combination I hadn’t thought of.

Tim: Now I’ve told you that, you’ll hit play and about thirteen seconds later think “oh, yeah”.

Tim: So, The Killers have gone and done electropop, and they’ve made quite a decent job of it.

Tom: M83’s influence is obvious, although it’s not quite the full-on explosion of electropop that they’re known for before. It’s a much calmer track than I expected.

Tim: Yes – outside the chorus, it has to be said there’s not a lot going on, aside from a gradually increasing level of anticipation for what’s coming inside the chorus. Because that chorus is fantastic. It makes the song, though that does come with with a sense of disappointment: if the verses matched up to, this could have been one of the songs of the year.

Tom: I still reckon there could be more, even there – M83 are known for producing such massive tracks that even the chorus was a touch disappointing to me.

Tim: You think? Either way, this could be better, and “America’s biggest rock band changes direction and absolutely smashes it” has a nice ring to it; “…and does a manageable job” doesn’t so much. But still, for me, what a chorus.

The Killers – I Feel It In My Bones

“A motorbike-riding, eggnog-swilling, grenade-chucking Santa.”

Tom: Well, it seems only fitting that since we discussed the Killers’ previous Christmas single on Saturday, we should discuss the current one on this Christmas Eve. Again, the profits go to Project Red.

Tom: Now that was a bit darker than last year. A motorbike-riding, eggnog-swilling, grenade-chucking Santa hunting down the Killers. It ain’t exactly Christmas robots and a cowboy ball, is it?

Tim: Not really, no. In fact, not by a hell of a long way.

Tom: But you know what this reminds me of? Chris Rea. I mean that in a good way: have a listen to the wonderful Looking For The Summer and tell me that they don’t match in style.

Tim: No, they do, but that doesn’t make it a nice happy Christmas song, which is what I’d prefer to this almost-as-miserable-as-Mud track.

Tom: And while I may not enjoy it quite as much as last year’s light-and-fluffy offering… well, it’s still fun, and I still like it. Well done, the Killers.

Tim: Fun? FUN? Are you serious? It’s one of the most downbeat Christmas songs I’ve heard. How it is possibly fun?

Tom: Oh, come on, the video’s got Santa with candy-cane nunchucks.

Tim: SANTA SHOULDN’T HAVE NUNCHUCKS.

Saturday Flashback: The Killers – The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball

“Isn’t that just brilliant?”

Tim: Slightly-known festive music fact: every year since 2006, The Killers have released a Christmas track with profits going to the Product Red campaign. Very good of them, and this one’s from last year.

Tim: And isn’t that just brilliant?

Tom: Oh, my word, that’s lovely. I like everything about that. It still sounds like the Killers despite also being country-and-western and Christmassy.

My two complaints – and they’re a very minor ones – are: one, that no-one seems to know where the apostrophe goes in the title…

Tim: Hmm…

Tom: …and two, that the tinkly glockenspiel bit sounds like it’s always going to go off into some traditional Christmas tune, and never quite does.

Tim: Yes, both very minor.

Tom: But I only mention those because I can’t think of anything else to say other than “just lovely”. Those last four lines and the ‘boom-boom’ at the end? THEY’RE JUST LOVELY.

Tim: Wow – do you know, I think that’s the first time any track on here has got you excited enough to shout about it. I’m impressed.

The lyrics are all taken from a poem off the 19th century that describes, well, a Cowboys’ Christmas Ball, and I reckon the music they’ve provided more than does justice to such a triumphant event. Strangely enough, the 1890 text doesn’t mention any sort of alien robots at all, but never mind because personally I’d far rather be at a party with alien robots than without, given the option, especially if they’ve all just saved us from the bad guys.

Tom: Damn right.

Tim: Amazing. So, shall we do-ce-do?

Tom: You lead.

Tim: Madam, it would be my honour.

The Killers – Runaways

I’ve got no complaints.

Tom: The Killers are known best for Mr. Brightside. Then they’ve got Somebody Told Me, which is almost as popular. Plus there’s When You Were Young, Human, Spaceman, All These Things I’ve Done and Read My Mind, in probable order of how likely someone is to remember them.

Tim: Something like that, yes, although Spaceman’s my favourite (so far, at least). Anyway, I’m sure you’d like to tell us what all this means, so apologies for interrupting.

Tom: What I’m saying is this: they’ve had a couple of killer tracks on every single album so far, albeit the big anthemic ones were both on the first album, eight years ago. This is the first single off the new album. Can they keep it going?

Tom: Yes. Yes they can. It’s not going to be a singalong club favourite, but it’s just as good as any of the tracks in that B-list I mentioned above. And when their B-list is this good, well, I’ve got no complaints.

Tim: Me neither. It sounds vaguely like it could be a U2 track from their 1980s days, before they took a dip, what with all the lengthy yelling and instruments and stuff, and I like that a lot.

Tom: Well, maybe a couple of complaints. It wasn’t until that final chorus that I thought the song had properly ‘kicked in’, so I was rather surprised when it ended. A second listen solved that, though.

Tim: My main niggle is that I’d love the “we all just runaway” to keep going through the instrumental bars it leads into, because I have a tune in my head that would go brilliantly there. It goes “we’re all just runaways, runaways, dum daa dum”, although with actual words in the las three bits. Doesn’t that sound great?

Tom: Minor tweaks aside, I reckon they’ve got a solid single here, sounding fresh enough while remaining true to their original sound. Not many bands can say that, eight years on.