| Musicfolio.com | Reviews & Recommendations |
| The Killers | |
|
|
|
|
Line-up: Brandon Flowers - Vocals/Synthesizer Dave Keuning - Guitar Mark Stoermer - Bass Ronnie Vannucci - Drums "It appears the band can’t overcome its laundry list of hipster generated influences and trend-follower label. That’s right, take equal parts Franz Ferdinand and The Strokes, add some seriousness with a little Interpol driven vocals, and top it off with a name checker influence like New Order, and voila... The band generates a batch of “ready for radio” pop songs that combine power chord rock with some cheesy keyboards; for the sake of having keyboards. (...) it’s not hard to figure out that 'Hot Fuss' is for the most part, an imitation. The qualities it possesses are ones generated by previous works of bands better than them.
-- Marty Slagter, musicunderwater.com
 ½ 2004:
Hot Fuss
 "Don't be fooled by their retro threads and the The in their name: The Killers threaten to pry dance rock from the steely grip of hipsterdom and thrust it unrepentantly into the mainstream. The Rapture are artier, and Franz Ferdinand are more, well, Scottish, but this Las Vegas band has actual pop songs -- in spades. A nightclub anthem in the making, the acid-tongued Somebody Told Me blasts into outer space on a wave of synthesizers and singer Brandon Flowers' cheeky chorus: 'Somebody told me you had a boyfriend/Who looked like a girlfriend/That I had in February of last year.' Jenny Was a Friend of Mine comes on like classic Duran Duran, all snaking bass lines and Flowers' elegantly wasted vocals -- part ironic detachment, part fake-British-accent, part throat-shredding wail. This album is all Killers, no filler."
-- Jenny Eliscu, Rolling Stone Magazine, 7/04
"The debut album from Las Vegas indie kids The Killers is a perfect example of why a big record collection informs the greatest bands. (...) As frontman Brandon Flowers explains, "We love all the Iggy Pop records as well as Duran Duran, The Stones, The Smiths and U2, and all these bands go into our sound". 'Hot Fuss' certainly wears its influences on its sleeve. From the dark-disco of Smile Like You Mean It through the catchy debut single Mr Brightside and self explanatory 'Indie Rock & Roll' this is a record made by a band in love with music. Elsewhere Somebody Told Me is a Strokesian anthem that beats anything on 'Room On Fire'..."
-- tiscali.co.uk
2006:
Sam's Town
Tracklisting: 1. Sam's Town 2. Enterlude 3. When You Were Young 4. Bling 5. For Reasons Unknown 6. Read My Mind 7. Uncle Jonny 8. Bones 9. My List 10. This River Is Wild 11. Why Do I Keep Counting? 12. Exitlude "...by toning down the glam-pop and turning up the grandeur, it's possible that the newly bearded band will only incite the scorn of critics even more. A balance of irony and savvy saved 'Hot Fuss' from being a hot mess of uninspired revivalism, but Sam's Town is just dead serious. The Killers seem like a band posing as a band that wants to be taken seriously. In other words, it's hard to take their seriousness seriously…or maybe I just prefer eyeliner to facial hair. The title track of 'Sam's Town' is everything The Killers have become known for: thumping, propulsive beats; sing-talky lyrics; towering synths; bold, inescapable hooks. The album's intro, entitled Enterlude, comes next, a curious but fitting placement as Sam's Town plays like a farewell to the Killers we once knew. They've turned toward a different kind of bravado. If Hot Fuss sounded like an American band trying to sound like a British act, then Sam's Town sounds like a British band trying to sound American, channeling both Bruce Springsteen and U2, a band whose American dominance is eclipsed only by its allegiance to Ireland. (...) 'Sam's Town' is the kind of autofellatio that could destroy a band's career. And while they probably aren't going anywhere, it's hard to disguise or ignore a slump the size of a landfill."
-- Sal Cinquemani, Slant Magazine, 06
2007: Sawdust Tracklisting: 1. Tranquilize - (new song recorded with Lou Reed) 2. Shadowplay - (Joy Division cover) 3. All the Pretty Faces - (from the When You Were Young single) 4. Leave the Bourbon On the Shelf - (unreleased track from Hot Fuss sessions) 5. Sweet Talk - (unreleased track from Sam's Town sessions) 6. Under the Gun - (new recording of the song from the Somebody Told Me single and Hot Fuss U.S. Limited Edition) 7. Where the White Boys Dance - (from the Sam's Town U.K. album and When You Were Young single) 8. Show You How - (extended version of the song from the Somebody Told Me single) 9. Move Away - (new recording of the song from the Spider-Man 3 OST) 10. Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll - (new recording of the song from the Hot Fuss U.K. album and U.S. Limited Edition) 11. Who Let You Go? - (from Mr. Brightside single) 12. The Ballad of Michael Valentine - (from the Somebody Told Me single and Hot Fuss U.S. Limited Edition) 13. Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town - (The First Edition cover and from the Smile Like You Mean It single) 14. Daddy's Eyes - (from the Bones single) 15. Sam's Town (Abbey Road Version) - (from the For Reasons Unknown single) 16. Romeo and Juliet - (Dire Straits cover recorded at Abbey Road from the For Reasons Unknown single) 17. Mr. Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Remix) / Questions with the Captain (Hidden Track) - (from the Mr. Brightside single) 2008: Day & Age Tracklisting: 1. Losing Touch 2. Human 3. Spaceman 4. Joy Ride 5. A Dustland Fairytale 6. This Is Your Life 7. I Can't Stay 8. Neon Tiger 9. The World We Live In 10. Goodnight, Travel Well Release date: Nov 25, 2008 |
______ |
Charts | Lyrics/Poetry | Links | Contact Us | Advertising Copyright © 1999-2012 - musicfolio.com - All Rights Reserved |