With a dislike of the letter “s” and a rather ostentatious feathered jacket, The Killers front man Brandon Flowers was starting to make me a little nervous about what to expect with the band’s third studio album. However, within moments of the opening track on Day and Age, I was hooked and reassured. 
Day and Age is the perfect continuation to the Killers catalog. To truly comprehend why Day and Age is the band’s best work to date, we must look at their other works.
When The Killers first released Hot Fuss in 2004, the band wowed audiences with their revival of 80s synth dance music. The album captured what was Vegas as if in a glance. There was the glitz and glamor of the big city, but there was also corruption that led to jealousy and murder. I loved that the band produced something that represented their home. However, the vocal range was limited. There were few to no harmonies. Instrumentally, the riffs and solos were brilliantly catchy, but they were not very experimental. There was room to grow.
In 2006, the band released Sam’s Town. I don’t think this album got the respect it deserved and too many people unfairly criticized it when it wasn’t another Hot Fuss in its essence. Instead, I think it must be looked at as the natural continuation of Hot Fuss. If Hot Fuss were the Hollywood version of Vegas, then Sam’s Town told the more natural story of the people. It was a collection of character pieces that you can only learn by driving to the outskirts of the city limits rather than taking a cab to a strip of casinos. The band had significantly progressed on this album. They were trying new things and experimenting musically by adding trumpets and more backing vocals. Flowers especially showed growth by telling truly personal stories about things like his fear of flying and his dad’s conversion to Mormonism instead of making up some fantastical murder like in “Jenny” trilogy.
With Day and Age, the band could have given fans a rehash of Hot Fuss since that is what so many people seemed to want. However, I would have seen that as selling out and I think they would have, too. The songs on this album are often genre-defying, so it isn’t chock full of potential radio singles like Hot Fuss was, but that doesn’t mean this record isn’t ridiculously catchy. “It’s kind of like looking at Sam’s Town from Mars,” said Flowers of Day and Age and that’s a really accurate description. This is a very natural progression for the band and I’m pleased to hear even more envelope pushing instrumentation like on “Goodnight, Travel Well” and thought-provoking lyrics as in “Dustland Fairytale”.
Other bands should take note of the Killers technique in opening tracks. That bass riff in “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine”, the drum role with the rising synth in “Sam’s Town” and, now, the trumpet of “Losing Touch”, the Killers know how to hook listeners right off the bat: this is a big track in which each member gets to shine. This is the first time I’ve heard the band carry vocal harmonies through an entire song. Mark Stoermer carries the song with his bass riff, drummer Ronnie Vannucci, Jr. has huge cymbal crashes and Dave Keuning wails on the guitar in his closing solo. Lyrically, I love the effect of Flowers saying, “Fill your crown with rumors” and then hearing all the whispers that ensue before he says, “Impending doom, it must be true.” The delivery is great.
“Human” is the first single off the album and the production contribution of Stuart Price is the most discernible on this song, making it seem like it already is a remix. This song also introduces the space theme that is carried out on the album. Now as much as the whole “Are we dancer?” thing drives people crazy, this song’s lyrics have to be noted for their cleverness. Not only do you have personification like “Soul and Romance” who “always did the best they could” but then there’s the alliterative line, “Close your eyes. Clear your heart. Cut the c(h)ord,” which is kind of mind-boggling; are cutting a “cord” or “chord” like the musical chord that stops with that phrase before the chorus question starts.
If there were any doubts that space was a motif on this album, the third song should clear that up. “Spaceman” is one of the funnest tracks on the record. This is also one of those songs that I think must be experienced live, simply because everybody will need a chance to sing along to the ”Oh oh ohs.” Lyrically, while I love the doom that’s implied in a line like “star-crossed world,” other phrases sound deeper than they probably are in reality. Nonetheless, they are still fun to sing. This song also has some really interesting transitions from epic synth intro to a bass solo to lone piano and back up to a huge rocking chorus. “Spaceman” reaches for the moon and deservedly lands among the stars.
After “Spaceman” is the swanky “Joy Ride”, which I almost feel a little dirty when listening to. With a jazzy brass part, bass line and drum beat, this song seems like it is from the 70s, which is a bit surprising considering the Killers have always been very 80s-influenced. It seems to me like a very Vegas guilty vacation sort of song. There’s “Pink and green neon” from the lights, a sketch hotel with “lipstick on the nightstand” and gambling, “When your chips are down and your highs are low, joy ride.” I wasn’t immediately attached to this song like the ones that precede it and, where I loved the “Oh oh ohs” on “Spaceman”, I didn’t care for the ones tacked onto the end of this song. You might have to give this a few listens, too before you get hooked.
After “Joy Ride” is the beautiful and heart-wrenching “Dustland Fairytale”, a title that is very representative of the song. This song has a rawness that isn’t really present on the other songs and seems a lot like a missing song from the band’s Live Acoustic From Abbey Road session. Lyrically, this song seems like it is telling the same story as “When You Were Young”, but from a different perspective. As acoustic piano opens, Flowers sings, “A dustland fairytale beginning, just another white trash county kiss in ’61.” And so the tale of the poor Cinderella begins. When Flowers sings, “The change came in disguise,” the music changes and strings and guitar burst in with an urgency that eggs the lyrics on, “Now Cinderella don’t you go to sleep” he begs as he tells the girl not to give up. This song is pure magic.
The next few songs are good, but I feel the album hits a little bit of a lull. “This Is Your Life” has an interesting vocal ostinato that you’ll either be amused or confused by. Keuning’s guitar riff on this song reminds me a lot of Johnny Marr. “I Can’t Stay” seems to be a fun experiment into what instrument sounds they can cram into the song. A bass heavy intro, harp, acoustic guitars, trumpet and more make up this jazzy number. The song gets catchier as it goes, so that you’re worked up for the round of the chorus at the end, “In the dark for awhile now, I can’t stay.”
The mid-tempo “Neon Tiger” almost comes off as a little blase next to the other songs on this album. It is a fine rock song and I like when the vocals drop lower in the middle over the stretched guitar notes, “I don’t want to be kept, I don’t want to be caged, I don’t want to be damned, oh hell.” After some of the more ideological and experimental songs, this song just comes off as safe. “The World We Live In” has the same problem as “Neon Tiger”. It is a fine song with interesting lyrics, but nothing that makes it really stand out next to some of the other songs on this album. For a song that loans the album its title, I expected a little more.
Despite the lull in the last half of the album, the final song on the album, “Goodnight, Travel Well”, more than makes up for it. A dark opening trombone note that makes me think of 2001: A Space Odyssey is graced with a noise that sounds like a pocket watch. Flowers then comes in with a dark, spiritual lyrics. The orchestral sounds used on this songs give it a fullness that few bands could pull off and the build-up and addition of each instrument is so perfectly timed. Everything seems so well-thought out, “Everything you said, everything you left me rambles in my head,” Flowers sings with a an echoing ramble to his phrase. He emotionally peaks, singing, “There’s nothing I can say, there’s nothing I can do now,” over a descending piano as desperation kicks in he releases a “Stay, don’t leave me.” over crashing cymbals. His vocals are the most controlled I’ve ever heard them on the long notes. ”Goodnight, Travel Well” is a brilliant way to close out the album and I can only imagine how great its reception will be live. This song is so entrancing, you don’t even realize that you were listening to it for nearly seven minutes. In fact, the whole album passes a lot quicker than you realize because every minute was worth listening.
The Killers‘ Day and Age is available now on vinyl or on November 24 on CD and in digital form. Different forms have different bonus tracks available.
Tracklisting:
01. Losing Touch
02. Human
03. Spaceman
04. Joy Ride
05. Dustland Fairytale
06. This Is Your Life
07. I Can’t Stay
08. Neon Tiger
09. The World We Live In
10. Goodnight, Travel Well
The Killers: website | myspace
Written by: Bethany
Pingback: The Killers - Day and Age | Watch Band Videos
Pingback: The Killers with M83 @ Magness Arena, Denver CO | popwreckoning
Pingback: Remix Monday: Tommie Sunshine | popwreckoning