Release Date: 11/24/08Genre: Alternative Rock
Yay. I'm always excited when big name bands release a new album even if I'm not a fan. It's just exciting. Think of it, all that outside pressures. When Hot Fuss came out, I liked some songs, but I wasn't convinced like some of my friends that they were the absolute best. Sam's Town was kinda whatever. And now album three. Close your eyes. Clear your heart. Cut the core.
Review: Now I'm sure there are iffyiness regrading what is consider to be The Killer's strong points, but I like their singles. When I heard "Human" for the first time, I felt it was a strong stand alone song and the buildup might be standard, but it sounded great in my opinion. And Brandon's vocals sounded really good. It's not song of the year material, but it's easy to digest.
Opening track, "Losing Touch" starts with some flare and the pre-chorus build is nice, "I'm in no hurry, you go run." But the rest just feels dull. Maybe the verse needs something added. Maybe the line of "You sold your soul, like a Roman vagabond" needs to make more sense. Whatever it is, I felt it was missing something, but as the opening track, it's forgivable.
"Spaceman" on the other hand has lots of words for me to soak in. It has that faded in intro and then a bunch of "oh oh oh oh oh oh oooah." So sometimes I feel like a hypocrite when I criticized albums for following a distinct pattern, but this song is my favorite pattern. The verse and chorus relationship feels like the natural progression. Nice build and fun beat.
"Joy Ride" has a saxophone and it has a 80s dance or 70s disco flavor. At first, I thought this was pretty fruity, but it's pretty funny. So now I'm kinda digging it. So it's a grower. "A Dustland Fairytale" is a slow building song that eventually flowers. I should like it because it follows the structure I love, but the climax is just a clash of bang bang and not really epic.
"This is Your Life" has a backing chant and I really like this song. It contains my favorite verses of the album as he kinda makes the melodies himself instead of stright shooting the words so I tend to have the lyrics rock back and forth in my head. "I Can't Stay" is a lighter song, but highly enjoyable. It's really charming and I like the touch of what I think it's just an acoustic guitars and drums playfully going together. And the harp was a nice addition.
"Neon Tiger" and "The World We Live In" are terrbile.
And lastly, the album closer, "Goodnight, Travel Well." Some people seem to love it, but it's really boring. At nearly 7 minutes, it's takes too long to build.
Summary: So is there a clear radio hit? Maybe 1 or 2 songs. You know, I gave this album more listens than I normally give and it grew on me. Not enough, but enough for me to slightly understand why many love this band. Still, some of their songs boarderline the uninteresting rope.
Key Tracks: Spaceman, This is Your Life, I Can't Stay
Rating: 6/10
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