So, this weekend I went to Bismarck, North Dakota to visit family. Over the course of 3 days I had plenty of spare time, most of which manifested itself within the 6 hour car ride there and back stuck between a 10 year old and 13 year old. Away from my instruments I decided to accomplish some other musical things while I had so much time. I set out to work on an idea for a composition, read some of a book about music and atonality (title? ask and you shall receive), and also listen to my entire collection of The Killers on my Zune.
Earbuds in and we're a go. I hit play all under The Killers in my library and listen song by song, album by album until the last song on Sawdust plays out (the albums are arranged by alphabet, maybe I should redo this by album year sometime?). Unfortunately for you, this is all being reported after the fact, maybe I should have taken notes as I continued along...
Day and Age begins as the countryside flies past. I really enjoy the album art, the mosaic look is wonderful. Good first few songs, but standing out to me is Spaceman. This may be due to the fact that it stood out to me while listening to everything on shuffle, or that I just put it on a mixed cd for my sister's car. I'd consider it my favorite song off of the album, followed by The World We Live In. Anyways, let's keep it moving, next album.
...After a short interlude of one of their Christmas album, which is well done, but somewhat ignored at the moment (70 degree car rides through tan fields remind me nothing of winter wonderlands).
Hot Fuss is next. There's a powerhouse beginning to this album. 5 amazing songs in a row! I love the bass lines in these, go Mark Stoermer! Mr. Brightside has to be my favorite song of the album. I love the guitar to it, and have played it and the bass line to great enjoyment. The riffs and chorus get stuck in my head for hours on end. The rest of the album is good, but doesn't overly stand out to me after the first 5. It may be The Killer's first album (2004), but it is my favorite of theirs.
Sam's Town is a good album as well. I do appreciate the idea that Flowers was trying to use, to chronologically show the events which brought him to where he was. I will have to listen to that album closely to get the real story. It's good, but the best song in my opinion is one which the album derives it's name from (or vice versa perhaps). Sam's Town is a good song that may have even introduced me to the band. A friend of mine (ironically named Sam) sought to learn the piano of it for an audition so that he could practice the vocals with the accompaniment. It sounded good, so I looked into it, and checked out the band, and they were good. Really good.
Sawdust was the final album to listen to. It's a compilation album and was pretty good. I enjoy Where The White Boys Dance, Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town, and most of all the Mr. Brightside remix that finishes out the album. What a great way to finish my listen through all of them. I'm quite often a fan of remixes, but it really does depend on the quality of the remix, you can't simply throw on some loud booming bass drums, but when a remix is done well it can be better than the original, though i do prefer the original in this case. The same goes for the rest of the album, being that some of them are covers (Ruby for example) they could go either way, but a different look at a song can improve it. There are some other covers of different songs which I find much better than the originals. This was a good album, I can't see why some of these didn't make it onto the main albums.
This long awaited listen has only added to my enjoyment of this band. They have a great style and sound. Looking back I could have written a lot more about Hot Fuss, but I may not have done it justice. Just go have a listen, it's worth it.
Top listens: Mr. Brightside, Spaceman, and basically the first half of the Hot Fuss album. If you don't yet know them, give them a listen. If you do, take a second look, perhaps closer this time. Listen closely to Sam's Town to get what Flowers is trying to tell you about his life, but don't tell me, I haven't done that for myself yet.
Peace out.
Alec.
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