CD REVIEW: THE KILLERS' "DAY AND AGE"

CD REVIEW: THE KILLERS’ DAY AND AGE
by M. R. Brown

Brandon Flowers once claimed that Sam’s Town, The Killers’ follow-up to Hot Fuss, would be the most important album in over a decade. How would he hype Day and Age? The man remained silent and let the album do all the talking this time around.

The Vegas foursome is swinging bravado with glam sensibility for excess. As Sam’s Town was pulled out of the Vegas desert, Day and Age is dragged from the strip after a night of hallucinogens and psychedelics. Think more “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine” than “All These Things That I’ve Done.”

As with previous albums, The Killers’ strength is found in the up-tempo musings. “Human” is an escape into a world fueled by ecstasy-ridden pleasures of blasting noise and catatonic light. As the album’s first single, the track defines Day and Age with dance-rock sensations and vain fury. A vision of dreams and nightscapes, “Spaceman” is essentially David Bowie for the hipsters today.

There is no instrument that is not considered for the album. Multi-layered and complex, the tracks resonate with additions such as horns, synth, piano and bongos. Drawing from influences of Lou Reed and New Order, “A Dustland Fairytale” and “Goodnight, Travel Well” round out a head-trip of a ride.

Irrational at best, the lyrics of many tracks are confusing at times. Flowers will stray from visions and rant through such songs as “The World We Live In” and “Neon Tiger.” Modeled after Bruce Springsteen, Flowers’ vocal ambitions are met with minor parallel connection issues sporadically. Tracks such as “Joyride” also have troubling finding a place on the album because of such musical striations in sound.

A revelation as flashy as the Vegas strip these four musicians waltzed down for many years, Day and Age reinstates The Killers as the kings of indie rock and roll. Flowers is often credited with the success of the band, but the guitar work of Dave Keuning is nothing short of arena-filling sound packed into every song with epic presentation. The glitz and embellished core of the album is, in essence, one of the most authentic looks at the ever-changing force of one of today’s most important rock acts.