The Killers – Day & Age

Through all of their super-egos, arrogance and Brandon Flowers’ fascination with himself, The Killers have still always been a pretty solid band. Lots of potential and a few outstanding tracks but always lacking something. 2006’s Sam’s Town was largely hurt by its overdone and outlandish arrangements and it seemed like the band tried too hard to pull off the Americana sound they so vigorously tried to capture. And even though they have always been a darling over the pond, their albums haven’t reached that significant status of being true classics. Day & Age isn’t a masterpiece but it ends up being their most consistent album to date and it shows true promise of growth and strength in their music.

The approach was pretty easy on this one: hide Flowers’ confusing voice a bit more, place the focus on the soaring music and allow the band to embrace their inner musicianship. One thing The Killers know how to do is write some epic, albeit a bit clumsy, songs. Here, the band branches out to try some different styles and they definitely do succeed. There is the synthesized, Phil Collins vibe of “The World We Live In” and the conga, saxophone swoon of “Joy Ride.” The latter is caught somewhere in between Duran Duran and David Sanborn pop. They sound cheesy and in a way, they are, but you can’t deny their catchiness.

The true winner in the celebration of these new shifts is “I Can’t Stay.” It begins with standard bass, then some twinkling bells and finally the chugging drums and shaker fill in the rest. It’s a straight up Caribbean shuffle that sounds almost like bossa-nova in a more straight-ahead fashion and yeah, that background, that’s steel drums and more sax. It’s easily one of the best songs on the album because through these new efforts, it all sounds stunningly sincere.

But don’t fret because there are still some of those great, grand and highly ambitious rockers. None pound away as joyously as “Human” and “Spaceman” do. The former is a synth-led song that features some of Flowers worst lyrics as he asks, “Are we human, or are we dancer?” Lyrics aside, the band overpowers with booming drums, melodic riffs and tight rhythms. And “Spaceman” is full-out great rock, complete with loud and awesome, “Oh-oh-oh-ohs” from the entire band.

Each and every single song on here is good and in total, they add up as The Killers best album yet. But the best is saved for last with the impressive growth of “Goodnight, Travel Well.” The ominous beginning of low reverberations are a fine introduction to Flowers’ understated vocals. Supported by a slow ticking and Flowers as he sings, “There’s nothing I can say, there’s nothing I can do now,” gradually and impressively, instruments are added to the mix and everything crescendos into a gorgeous release. It’s equally striking, dazzling and utterly spectacular that they have these kind of musical chops on them.

It’s with that lasting song that it reminds you of just how good this band can be. Although some feel that they are already there, there is much work to be done. Flowers had stated in interviews that Sam’s Town was better than OK Computer and that it was his Hunky Dory and although he was way off base, I wonder what he thinks this new album is. Whatever he thinks, we should know that it’s a very solid release and one that should be easily welcomed into any music fan’s arms.