 "Photo: Courtesy Island Records")
Just who do the members of The Killers think they are, anyway?
When the group first rode the wave of universal acclaim for its hour-long dance party debut, "Hot Fuss" in 2004, it was easy to classify - a dance rock band fond of big singles. The sort of band you could listen to with friends, and also allowed your parents to belt out the chorus to "Somebody Told Me" while it blared on FM radio.
Flash forward four years and The Killers have become an enigma.
Four albums into its career, the group has reinvented itself at every turn. It took a trip to "Sam's Town," drenching its sound in the American southwest, a move made in hopes of shaking off its mock title as the "Best New British Band."
And as for its artistic stretching? The Killers received a resounding bull-whipping from music critics across the board, which was no doubt thanks to frontman Brandon Flowers' penchant for exaggeration, labeling "Sam's Town" as "the most important album of the last 20 years."
It was no surprise that its second CD didn't live up to the hype, even though it was as good as its predecessor.
Since then, times haven't been great. Its label scrapped together a B-sides album dubbed "Sawdust," which yielded little love from the big radio stations and MTV which had made the band mega-stars.
Then came "Human," the lifeless limp-bodied first single that was so saturated in melodrama and obtuse lyrics like "Are we human? Or are we dancer?" that Flowers sums it up the reaction best when midway through he warbles, "Let me know if your heart's still beating."
Now, at the end of 2008, The Killers have confounded predictions again.
Its latest effort, "Day & Age" isn't a return to form, but another foray into its imaginations, a dense musical journey sprinkled with space rock and the type of creative leaps to be expected of a regular band, not The Killers.
"Day & Age" manages in its own right to stand surefooted amongst the band's earlier works. The album's only glaring faults are its lack of consistency and The Killers' bread and butter, the big single.
While the album is an engaging, even enjoyable listen, "Human," "Spaceman," "Neon Tiger" and other would-be singles fail hit the high-water mark left by "Mr. Brightside" and "When You Were Young."
There isn't a tune on the record fit enough to survive in today's harsh pop landscape, which teems with hip country stars and auto-tuned rap beats. A sentiment best summed up in the words of Flowers himself in "The World We Live In," where he says, "This is the world that we live in/ and no we can't go back."
The album works best when The Killers allow themselves to experiment.
"Losing Touch," the first song on the album, is the band's kiss off to all those who "run and tell their friends" and "fill their heads with rumors of impending doom." Blistering with offbeat saxophone blasts and heavily distorted guitar, The Killers hit the ground running but quickly lose speed.
On tracks like "Joy Ride" and "A Dustland Fairtytale," despite interesting musical backings by the band, Flower's melodrama weighs down the song, rambling on about "Cinderella in a party dress," and "slick chrome American Princes" while lines like "Moon river, what'd you do to me?" clunk so hard that it almost drowns out the intricately layered instrumentation.
"Day & Age" has a few mistakes. It's a tad long and overindulgent but The Killers are an ambitious lot, and at worst, still demonstrate the creativity and imagination to push to be better. In the end, even if the album were to be categorized as a misstep, it's a misstep in the right direction.
Peter Rizzo can be reached at prizzo@student.umass.edu.
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