THE KILLERS: Day & Age (ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

The Killers don't upset their habits and release two years after "Sam's Town" a new album "Day & Age", a title that its inventor, the singer Brandon Flower, has a hard time explaining. He says that "Day & Age" is in the line of the two previous albums, but a bit more pop and that, in a moment of exceptional lucidity, this one would probably not be their best album. Which is not totally wrong.

However, this "Day & Age" starts rather well, with a pleasant 'Losing Touch' with a pop/rock scheme, certainly classic but full of interesting little plans like the alternation of the rather rough horns with softer and enveloping keyboards or the usual break calming things down before the explosion bringing the final solo. With the following single, 'Human', we enter another dimension; homage to the new-wave or real will of exploration, this track frankly more dance than pop will make many people jump with its drum machine and its omnipresent synths. If in 2008, the track didn't bring much to the musical landscape, in 2022 it tends to make its effect and will wake up the nostalgic side of a great number of listeners while surprising the young curious. And it continues with 'Spaceman', the hit of the album which this time leans more towards the Rock side with its rumbling bass, its "oh oh oh" to be sung in concert, its huge and unstoppable chorus and its improbable bridge. Effective and powerful!

And then it becomes a mess. Flowers seems to have given free rein to his most unbridled inspirations to string together songs that have nothing to do with each other. Sometimes it works, but here it's more complicated. The funky and delirious 'Joy Ride' is completely out of place, especially since it is followed by the very classic 'A Dustland Fairytale'. And what can we say about the melody of 'This Is Your Life', a superb cross between "The Lion King" and Johnny Clegg or 'I can't Say' and its bossa-nova rhythmic on honeyed keyboards, the prize perhaps going to 'Neon Tiger', a piece that David Lynch could have written if he had been a musician so much the finality is difficult to define.

Once again, The Killers fail in their mission to be the "best rock band in the universe". It is not the will which misses nor the means, more especially as the vocals, weak point of the preceding productions, improved clearly. The uncontrolled flights in high notes have disappeared and it appears much more mastered. It is rather a undoubtedly too excessive and not channeled desire which makes the group leave in all the directions. With hits like 'Spaceman', 'Mr Brighside' or 'Somebody Told Me', The Killers clearly have the ability to make great songs. So why not a great album? Many questions that will need a few more years to find an answer... - Official website

THE KILLERS

DAY & AGE

ISLAND

ROCK