The Killers Live from the Royal Albert Hall |
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 | Tracklist:
1. Human
2. This Is Your Life
3. Somebody Told Me
4. The World We Live In
5. I Can't Stay
6. Bling (Confessions of A King)
7. Shadowplay
8. Smile Like You Mean It
9. Losing Touch
10. Spaceman
11. A Dustland Fairytale
12. Sam's Town (Acoustic)
13. Read My Mind
14. Mr. Brightside
15. All These Things That I've Done
16. Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine
17. When You Were Young
Release Date: 2009 | |
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| Summary: The corniness of Day and Age is eliminated and replaced with the intended power of Sam's Town. |
3 of 3 thought this review was well written
Live From Royal Albert Hall,
Hailing from the city of lights and over distraught glamour, may I present, The Killers. Now, this band had it going. “Mr. Brightside” and “When You Were Young” completely dominated the radio upon release, and nobody could deny that The Killers had some damn good material. Well after the eyeliners of Hot Fuss & Sam’s Town spread thin, then came the wild turn of Day and Age and its horn infested pop nostalgia.
Live from Royal Albert Hall is the first official live release of The Killers, a CD/DVD set that is in essence, a live greatest hits album. Although its personally saddening to see the CD version cut out a set list of the DVD concert and forget some of my favorite songs, the final product doesn't disappoint. If it wasn't for all the 15 year old girls screaming bloody Brandon at the top of their lungs I would have considered attending.
The energy and passion is much more direct than their studio albums. The raw sounds in the songs are much stronger than any of the overproduced sounds in the albums. It's good stuff. Seriously, when you first heard Sam's Town you couldn't deny the horrendous amount of “What the ***?!” moments that littered the atmosphere of their second album. What was nice however, was that it grew after repeated listens. That method was pretty much eliminated for us with Day and Age. The flat-out corniness was really embarrassing, “Losing Touch”s grooviest lines were disturbed with blaring horns and extremely frustrating blasts that were, in simplest terms, a complete turn off. One of the most memorable moments, “A Dustland Fairytale” was so scalded that Brandon's vocals pierced a hole through your ear drum.
A few of the songs from the CD are negated from the DVD set list, namely Joy Ride, Sweet Talk, and 3 tracks from Sam’s Town. But more importantly, it's polite to recognize the band members. The band mainly consists of:
Brandon Flowers – Lead Vocals, Keyboards
Dave Keuning – Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals
Mark Stoermer – Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
Ronnie Vannucci – Drums & Percussion
Brandon Flowers does what you would expect at a rock concert, letting the audience fill in gaps in the songs where it deems fit and adding vocal changes to spice things up. Keuning and Stoermer are right match and game, they play all the riffs excellently, and the solos are always right on. At times the re-verb and sound effects are baffled and it ruins a few vital moments in the concert *cough* When You Were Young *cough*. Ronnie Vannucci is the interesting one however. Throughout the entire concert this guy must be having the time of his life. His energy never even fades and he is always bouncing on the seat of his own drum set from of his own rhythms. He excellently re-covers all of the Killers classics without avail and only occasionally seems to slide through due to sound problems. In some parts the synth seems to be a bit over the diving board but the songs are usually too catchy for it to be a problem..
Perhaps the most interesting thing I've found about this though is that the “filler” tracks of the studio albums actually hold up on their own very well against the more popular tracks (e.g. Human). This Is Your Life is one of the most impressive live performances I've heard from The Killers, and thank god they turned down the volume on those background “oodelays”. At times, Flowers vocals seem warped, and it's mostly because we've had the radio stations impound the original sound of the singles into our heads. The live versions are quite refreshing and appealing to listen to. Background vocals are aesthetic, and you can actually hear the violins without having your ear drum murdered.
The fan favorites are all present, there's the infectious flavor of “Somebody Told Me”, the melancholy microwaved reheat of “Mr. Brightside” and a nice reminiscence starting on “All These Things I've Done”. Brandon Flowers vocals on the latter two aren't too impressive though, but they do their part. The other Hot Fuss track is a careful reparation, the interrogation at the heart and ache of “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine” does not disappoint and shows the alternate dimension and brilliant power behind the song: the murder questioning. Brandon Flowers displays the best to perfection as that song can get live, even yelping the melody as a plea for mercy. The bass lines in it are increasingly shown and actually drive the song more than the drums.
This record is a healthier dose than their studio albums. The energy, the passion and the raw sound is much stronger than any of the "overproduced" sounds of their studio albums. The corniness of day and age is eliminated and replaced with the intended power of Sam's Town and the innocence of Hot Fuss to bring one hell of a ***ing awesome live album.
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 4 | Sound Off
"There ain't no motive for this crime,
Jenny was a friend of mine."
hope you like, enjoy
Digging: King's X - Dogman | | |
this is gonna be overshadowed due to some mega fervor on chan's plans.... but anyway it's really weird I just popped in Day & Age! cool review... some convincing is definitely necessary as I find some of the claims hard to believe but you back it up well.
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i liked day & age better than sam's town call me crazy
Digging: Simian Mobile Disco - Unpatterns
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you're crazy
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
Album rules.
| | | Album Rating: 4 | Sound Off
"this is gonna be overshadowed due to some mega fervor on chan's plans"
whats that supposed to mean?
and klap4music, you must be weird. my friend thinks the same way as you though.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
Very nice review, pos'd. I'm the Killers fanboy here lol.
| | | Album Rating: 4 | Sound Off
hahah i thought i was.
oh wait im the Crush 40 fanboy, nevermind
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sorry, I meant your recent posting of a review, which normally would get a lot of hits because it's at the top of the page, may be overshadowed attention-wise because chan's plan's just went up and has garnered like 60 comments in 5 minutes. pretty irrelevant idk, lo siento
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obviously i love hot fuss most of all, sam's town just really annoyed me. came off as very pretentious to me and i thought flowers did a terrible job vocally, songs weren't as interesting, etc. most people think the exact opposite haha
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I haven't listen to anything from The Killers since Hot Fuss, but I really liked that. I should check more out.
Digging: ASAP Rocky - Live.Love.A$AP.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
I can understand the pretentiousness of it. I dreaded Sam's Town the day I got it, listened to it more and more and now I like every track on it. Hot Fuss will remain supreme though. I agree with his vocals on Sam's Town, much more preferred them on Hot Fuss.
| | | Album Rating: 4 | Sound Off
(what seaanenome said)
son of a b-
lol
yeah hot fuss really was the hot fuss. even the bad tracks are awesome
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
Check out Sam's Town man, really good album imo but be warned it's a grower, definitely a departure from Hot Fuss. I also greatly enjoyed Day & Age and sawdust has a bunch of great tracks. Also check out their cover of Bright Eyes's Four Winds, one of my favorite songs by them.
| | | Album Rating: 4 | Sound Off
four winds!? yeah i thought so too JWT155! i posted that i liked the killers version more and they all disagreed with me! Whaaaat!?
Also sawdust is the most interesting, half of it is their best material, and the other half is really bland.
Tranquilize FTW
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Will do. I loved their Hot Fuss sound, but the singles/assorted other songs I've heard since have had pretty awful vocals, hopefully I can get over them somewhat.
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the original murders that cover haha. glad flowers likes oberst though
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
I prefer the Killers version as well, the original is a great folksy tune but I like their more trance take on it.
| | | Album Rating: 4 | Sound Off
i just dont like most indie music. if it even has the tiniest sound that reminds me of country i wont like it.
Also I cant wait for Flowers solo album. Im positive its gonna have some good stuff on it.
| | | Album Rating: 4
Personally, I wasn't a fan of the setlist/order for this show.
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