Has any band ever musically collapsed as bad as The Killers did?I interupt your day to bring you an angry tirade against one of my former favorite bands.
The Killers.
Let's give this a run-through chronologically.
We can call it, "The Mysterious Collapse Of A Possibly Awesome Genre"
Let's just say Hot Fuss was an awesome album, combining synthesized elements and an original sound just right for radio, yet not too soft for the indie crowd.
It was the perfect mix of originality, a new and fresh sound unheard of before. From "Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine" all the way to the three Euro-release tracks "Indie Rock 'n Roll," "Ballad Of Michael Valentine," and "Under The Gun," Hot Fuss had it.
Yes, it had it.
"Somebody Told Me" has become a thing of club music lore, routinely synthesized and blasted to make people sing along to that boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that he had in February of last year.
I thought The Killers were the godfathers of a new sound; the best thing to happen since Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro decided to form the greatness of Jane's Addiction which opened the door for the all-known grunge scene.
And, of course, "Mr. Brightside" was the flagship song, if only it weren't overblown by the radio masses. But then again, that's what they do.
Big expectations came with anticipation of Sam's Town, an album that had my name (!) and the opening single, "When You Were Young," instantly my favorite song when I first got ears to it.
And then something happened -- it sucked.
Just a horrid mish-mash of songs that refused to flow and provide decent rhythm, the only scraps of songs I can take from Sam's Town are "WYWY" and "Uncle Jonny" and maybe, but only maybe and if I'm in a good mood can I appreciate "Read My Mind."
Other than that, just complete bullshit of an album.
I was hurt (which I shouldn't have been since it's just a fucking CD), but I still held faith that The Killers would know that they just produced a bullshit album and redeem themselves in the form of a comeback album.
I mean, all the greats had a shitty album at one point.
The Rolling Stones's Dirty Work, Led Zeppelin's Presence, and Pink Floyd's The Final Cut have been forgotten and written off as mulligans, so I expected retaliation from Brandon Flowers and crew.
And then it never came.
They released some crappy EP/LP album called Sawdust that nobody even knows about before finally dusting off their instruments to make a real album called Day & Age, which sounded like it could be transcendant.
Maybe Flowers will put the pieces back together, get back to original rhythms to go with his sharp voice, and get back to making good music.
Headed by a campaign that included a Saturday Night Live appearance and a pretty good single called "Human," the pieces were in place.
But it was terrible. Another collaboration of crap that never gets off the ground, it didn't even sell 800,000 copies.
BUT, it did win Best Album Cover of 2008 by Rolling Stone Magazine!
From the greatness and originality of Hot Fuss, The Killers never got back to the sound that made them the most original band of the mid-aughts. It simply didn't happen, and this is where they are now.
Being bashed in a personal blog by me, who used to be their biggest fan.
I loved them When I Was Young, but in this Day & Age, The Killers have fittingly become nothing more than the Sawdust they wanted the people to know about.
How fitting that The Killers killed themselves.
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I'm tired of ranting about them, let me just watch a video of when they were good. Maybe it will bring me back, or not.
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