The Killers – Day and Age

Releasedate: 25-11-2008; Label: Universal Records
By: Nina Mende

The Killers is an American rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada. Formed in 2002, the group consists of Brandon Flowers (vocals, keyboards), Dave Keuning (guitar, vocals), Mark Stoermer (bass guitar, vocals) and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. (percussion, drums). The group’s debut album, Hot Fuss (2004) brought the band mainstream success. The Killers’ second album, Sam’s Town, was released in 2006, and the compilation album Sawdust containing B-sides, rarities, and new material, was released in 2007. Now they have their newest album released called Day&Age.

The album layout is very interesting. On the outside (back and front) and when you open the CD case you can see a desert — which I just guess is the Nevada Desert outside of Las Vegas – in the pattern of the Ishiara tests for color blindness. The band name is in the horizon with the same pattern, the album name in normal print right underneath though. In the booklet the portraits of each band member are in the same pattern. Besides the complete band picture on one page and the credits and Thank You’s on another there are only plain silver pages, no lyrics to the songs. When pressing play you can immediately tell that it’s The Killers. They just have their typical sound and style of music which is great.

 The first half of the album is very danceable and great to sing along. The synthesized sounds on some songs add some sort of depth to the songs which give them a feeling of eternity. Some songs are very electronic. My favorites are “Spaceman” and “Joyride” because these songs just make you dance and sing along and somehow happy. “Losing Touch” is a quite serious song, so is “Human”, actually all songs are lyric-wise, but sound-wise it varies.

The second half of the album is not as fast and danceable with groovy melodies but slower, mellower and calmer. “A Dustland Fairytale” is a very interesting song. With the Cinderella in a party dress it caught my attention and doesn’t get out of my head but keeps my thought busy. “The World We Live In” is the song that includes the album name. Most songs don’t have obvious titles which makes the album even more interesting. If you listen closely to the lyrics you can hear that some songs even are quite tragic but don’t have a gloomy sound. I guess that is what I love about the Killers. You have to take a close and deep look to discover the truth underneath the façade and the bright lights. You need time to discover that, a quick peak won’t do.

Day&Age, a gorgeous new album by The Killers.

Tracklist: 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

Links:
The Killers MySpace
The Killers Official