The Killers: Day & Age

I truly didn’t think that the Killers could make a better album. I was pretty convinced they reached peak genius with Sam’s Town and Hot Fuss. Well ladies and gents, I was wrong.

I think it’s unanimous that Day & Age is their best. Ever. Not to mention one of the best albums I own altogether. Instead of uniformly crafting their sound into a sexy yet expected alternative album of solidarity – here, the Killers have become many things all at once. What risk takers these Mormon boys from Las Vegas have become and what a very, very good thing it has proven to be. Sometimes they throw back to the 80’s in true Pet Shop Boys/The Cure fashion, such as in the album’s opener “Losing Touch” and “Spaceman”, with synthed-out backgrounds and layered, power choruses. At other times, they are a true throwback to 70’s disco/sugar pop, calling on The Kinks, which conjure up temptations of putting on hot pants, platform shoes and shaking your booty. Please, for the love of music, listen to “Joy Ride” and you will know what I’m talking about.

But I digress. Aside from the catchy songs and hooky beats, the production and instrumentation on this album is so tight, so crystal clear and so sharp that it far surpasses most anything else out there in the current climate. It’s like music on acid and I mean that in the most refined way. But what stands out more than anything is lead singer Brandon Flower’s lyrics and the ironic yet pleasing, detached yet pained lilt to his haunting voice. Intellectually speaking, the religious, political and social themes in Day & Age take the album to a level most bands couldn’t even come close to if they tried. In “A Dustland Fairytale”, Flowers laments: “Change came in disguise of revelation, set his soul on fire/ She said she always knew he’d come around/ And the decades disappear/ Like sinking ships but we persevere/ God gives us hope but we still fear, we don’t know.”

Did I mention that every single track is addictive? However, it is the intelligence and mastery in Day & Age that demonstrates that fine distinction between what we call “noise” and what we can call “art.”