Album Rating: 2.5

WTF this album is a 5 Rating ??? Also a Classic ???

Funny Guy

Album Rating: 3.5

Hah

Album Rating: 3.5

Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in.

Album Rating: 5.0

Damn Sput loves a good anti-hype. This is a classic and don't you forget it!

On a serious note though, I heavily disagree with some of the comments from the last few pages (if that wasn't evidenced enough by the review).



"it's a solid indie pop album with a small town fixation and above average lyricism"

hoping this is one of your trademark meme comments jotw because lol



"Idc if this is the best written story in the history of mankind, if the music isn't equally as engaging, it's not going to do much for me. Would much rather take an absolute belter of a track like uncle jonny even if isn't as profound or deep, it's just fun as hell"

I have a soft spot for belters/bops/bangers as much as anyone (see my Foxing review just last week), but for me nothing can substitute for excellent lyrics. This has some of the best storytelling I've heard - not just from Brandon fuckin' Flowers, but at all. I'd take an understated "In this barbed wire town of barbed wire dreams, I'm in my bedroom on the verge of a terrible thing / around here, we all take up our cross and hang on His holy name, but the cards that I was dealt will get you thrown out of the game" over a rollicking "When everybody else refrained, my uncle Jonny did cocaine / He's convinced himself right in his brain that it helps to take away the pain" Ugh. The former is poetry, the latter is just a song.



"Americana is a genre with a lot of truly great lyricists and I’d say the lyrics here follow the approach of the music - they hit the expected notes and don’t let anyone down but little more"

You're right on with the first half of that, but I could quote for pages on-end lyrical passages from this that do way more than hit the expected notes. Some of them are in my review so I won't go nuts here I just fundamentally disagree that the lyrics here are average, which I can't believe I'm defending the words of Brandon Flowers but I guess this is 2021 what a time to be alive.



"WTF this album is a 5 Rating ??? Also a Classic ??? Funny Guy"

Easily the most accurate statement itt, well put

Album Rating: 3.5

oops i omitted the 'rock' from pop-rock

someone summon caliggy

Album Rating: 5.0

"it's a solid indie pop / rock album"

Naw, Americana my dude.



"with a small town fixation"

that's mostly what Americana does, yes



"and above average lyricism"

see re: Gyro/Doof

Album Rating: 3.5

so beyond the spurious age-old fixation over whether it still counts as pop-rock when a pop-rock band play americana can you identify one falsehood there

Album Rating: 2.5

Sowing I’m just saying a lot of the appeal with Americana is often the lyrics - the storytelling, the detail, the moods conjured



You get someone like Willy Vlautin of Richmond Fontaine who’s released about 20 albums of this type of small town subject matter (usually with a slightly lighter touch) and has now written about six novels, four of which have been made into indie films…I can’t get majorly blown over by these.



Fairer to compare to Springsteen, again these aren’t quite that…so then you head to Tom Petty or the like, and that’s more on a par - but then I’m mean and say Petty had a better ear for melody across a whole album than demonstrated here.



The best songs and best lyrics are pretty good here though, certainly hear the appeal. Plus coming from Brandon Flowers does add a bit more respect, I think he definitely put a load of effort into them- so compared to contemporaries like Kings of Leon or whoever they’re on a different level sure.



The tone is consistent with this album but after three listens the best songs are still a lot better than the sleepiest ones - quality wise still a bit inconsistent for me.

No one knows what americana is.

Album Rating: 2.5

Well the overlap between the alt country albums I own and the Americana ones I own according to RYM genre distinctions was 100% so…I’m sure there’s an important difference someone can make.



I guess Americana can also be a type of rock/heartland rock that’s not majorly country which is the case here.

Album Rating: 5.0

"so beyond the spurious age-old fixation over whether it still counts as pop-rock when a pop-rock band play americana can you identify one falsehood there"

I'm confused as to how the genre can be anything other than the music being executed. This is indeed Americana. Did that help or am I just talking in circles?



@Doof that's all perfectly fair, and I'm not meaning to imply that this is on par with the most authentic Americana artists of all time. I don't think it has to be in order to be considered a modern classic (an opinion I'm sure I'll find myself in the minority; I mean it's The Killers), but folks rarely recognize a classic in its time (further argument against this being one, since I anointed it as such, ha!), but the depth of the lyrics here and the contextual importance of taking a snapshot of rural decay in America during the post-Trump pandemic era - especially by a band with The Killers' reach/platform - leads me to believe that this one could be looked back on as a true assessment of the times. The potential certainly exists for me to be wrong about this (it wouldn't be the first time!), but I felt it was worth betting on with the 5. We'll see ten years from now when we're all still here using the exact same site interface while fighting off the covid lambda-3 variant.

Is this the best killers album?

Album Rating: 5.0

Yes, although I will also accept Sam's Town as an answer.

Album Rating: 2.5

The first five songs on the debut are still the best Killers album

Album Rating: 5.0

1. West Hills 5/5

2. Pressure Machine 5/5

3. Quiet Town 5/5

4. Terrible Thing 5/5

5. Cody 4.5/5

6. The Getting By 4.5/5

7. In The Car Outside 4.5/5

8. In Another Life 4/5

9. Desperate Things 4/5

10. Runaway Horses 3.5/5

11. Sleepwalker 3.5/5

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

"the depth of the lyrics here and the contextual importance of taking a snapshot of rural decay in America during the post-Trump pandemic era - especially by a band with The Killers' reach/platform - leads me to believe that this one could be looked back on as a true assessment of the times."



I'm not entirely sure I see much specific relevance to Covid and the post-Trump era in this album, I mean if I'm reading the review correctly many of these stories are from Flowers' childhood. I feel like I've heard the same stories on other older records, aside from maybe mentioning the Opioid crisis?

Opener was cool, rest is meh. Might revisit later.

Album Rating: 5.0

@fogza: I don't think it has to specifically reference anything at all (covid, political division) to be an accurate snapshot of rural life in 2021. A lot of the memories of his childhood reflect how Nephi still is, and that's the point - nothing really changes. But dropping this into a moment in history where these types of towns are decaying economically before our very eyes lends this a momentum it couldn't have possibly garnered in, say, 2005. It's something of a documentary of the people who make up such a huge fraction of American culture during a point in history that will be repeatedly studied.

Album Rating: 4.4 | Sound Off

nice novelty to actually have great songs on the second half of a Killers album lol. how often has that happened ever - This River is Wild and My List I guess, maybe When the Dreams Run Dry, otherwise uhhhh

Album Rating: 5.0

So true Rowan lmao.

'In the Car Outside' is such a nice burst of energy (not to mention an accurate account of how so many marriages lose their spark), the unreal falsetto/violins in the title track easily contend for best moment on the album, and the lyrics on 'The Getting By' are superb as is its pastoral (almost Fleet Foxes?) aesthetic. There's not a bad song here though. I'm blown away by this in every conceivable way and still can't believe The Killers wrote something so honest, uncompromising, and simultaneously engaging.