The Killers

Day & Age (Island)

By Rebecca Shore
Published: November 25th, 2008 | 9:00am

The Vegas-based quartet that first demanded attention with their gritty guitars and thin, trembling vocals have taken a hefty risk with their third studio album, Day & Age: synth-heavy beats are frequently favored over rocky riffs; bizarre space-age lyrics over standard themes of sex, success, and indifference; and broader, fuller vocals over the sharp, distinctive sound that normally characterizes frontman Brandon Flowers. It's a stab at the New Wave of the ‘80s (and the ahead-of-his-time Bowie of the ‘70s), and for some of their followers, that may already be a deal breaker. But it shouldn't be.

"Human," the album's first single, is already creeping up the Billboard chart and has garnered both praise for its ingenuity and criticism for the bizarrely rhetorical question posed by the hook: "Are we human, or are we dancer?"

What?

Thankfully, Flowers explained away any confusion on the band's official website, stating that it's a reference to a quote from late hipster-hero Hunter S. Thompson. The song, rumored to have borrowed its chord progression from the Alphaville hit "Forever Young," is additively dance-y — almost to the point of sounding like a club remix. "Spaceman" channels Ziggy Stardust with its floating-in-space imagery. "Losing Touch," with its horn section, has the big sound of a Springsteen song and likewise lyrics ("Like a roaming vagabond / I'm losing touch"). The blue-collar theme also factors into "A Dustland Fairytale" which depicts romance in dismal Middle America ("Out here the birds don't sing…The good girls die"). With a funk beat and a sax solo, "Joy Ride" has the same Devil-may-care philosophy of Duran Duran's "Rio," except that it's situated in a car moving across the Sierra, and not a 40-footer off the coast of Brazil. The last song, "Goodnight, Travel Well" is the most obvious deviation from the rest of the tracks — a long, slow, and deliberately mournful saga.

For a band that experienced immense success under the easily-packaged "post-punk revival" umbrella (see also: Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand), the new sound is a curveball. But in an era when a genre can go from hot to not in 12 months — and most bands barely make it to their 15th minute — it may be the Killers’ last chance to regain relevant ground on airwaves and iPods. Over the past half-decade, the ‘80s have seen a sort of revival in the sartorial sense, but with Day & Age, the Killers have managed to pull double-duty: they've revived the best of the decade in a musical sense, but also proved that they possess enough range to ensure success in the future; even if that means delving into the past.

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