Next year marks the 20th anniversary of The Killers’ formation in 2001. In the 16 years since their 2004 debut album Hot Fuss they have released 6 albums, the latest of which is Imploding The Mirage.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the latest Killers album is how it came to be made. From the outset lead singer Brandon Flowers chose Thomas Blackshear’s painting Dance Of The Wind And Rain (the eventual album cover) to be the muse the group turned to while recording the music for the record. According to Flowers, “Blackshear typically does Western landscapes, or he does spiritual art. But on this particular one (Dance Of The Wind And Rain) he combined them, and that’s exactly what I wanted to capture. Songs that didn’t fit, they had to get cut. We’d never done anything like that, but it ended up being a real beacon for us”.
Beacon or no beacon, the story of how the album came to be made is more interesting then the album itself. While The Killers have always used keyboards, synthesizers and computers as a force behind their own successful brand of rock and roll, their music has never sounded dated, not until now. A once mighty rock band with a powerfully flamboyant lead singer the like of which had not been seen since Freddie Mercury of Queen, The Killers held sway over all the haters. That was then, this is now.
Track after track belie the lofty goals set out by Flowers for the Imploding The Mirage album. Rather then coming off as an A rated rock band at the height of their powers, The Killers end up sounding like some obscure 80’s cover band relying heavily on layer upon layer of cheesy dated synth lines. Imagine being locked in a room for 42 minutes and forced to listen to Midge Ure’s Ultravox’s “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes” over and over ad nauseam.
Unfortunately that’s the kind of torture inflicted upon the listener by this vastly disappointing album. Sadly The Killers aren’t killing it anymore, not with this record anyway.
5/10
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