The Killers - 'Day & Age' Review

The Killers’ Day & Age is the band’s strongest record because it’s their least self-conscious. Though they remain a group that’s heavily influenced by their favorite bands, Day & Age finds the Killers relaxing a bit and developing their own sound. Much of the credit needs to go to frontman Brandon Flowers, whose singing has grown warmer and more confident on this third record. Day & Age may lack the breakout hits of earlier albums, but its consistency demonstrates a newfound maturity for the Las Vegas band.

The Killers came to prominence on 2004’s Hot Fuss, a wildly derivative album that liberally borrowed from New Wave bands of the ‘80s like Depeche Mode and Duran Duran. Two years later, the group returned with Sam’s Town, which turned its attention to the sweeping quality of Bruce Springsteen’s best work. In both cases, the Killers seemed like little more than an energetic dance-rock cover band. With Day & Age, the Killers have calmed down their spot-the-influence tendencies. You can still hear Duran Duran in “Joy Ride” and a hint of the Cure on “Neon Tiger,” but by and large the Killers finally sound like they’re trying to do something new rather than replicate something old.

Lyrically, Brandon Flowers sticks to some of his usual thematic tropes while trying his hand at some new topics. Day & Age tracks like “Human” have a yearning component to them that Killers fans will remember from earlier albums, but the cold-blooded breakup songs that helped make the band’s name aren’t much in evidence here. Instead, Flowers sings about an alien abduction on “Spaceman” and attempts some epic storytelling on “A Dustland Fairytale.” Overall, Day & Age continues Sam’s Town’s quest for meaning and contentment, but thankfully that album’s overblown histrionics have been considerably toned down. You can notice the difference in the two albums most strikingly in Flowers’ vocals, which have lost much of their affected theatricality and become more vulnerable and engaging. For once, the guy actually sounds like a frontman and not just a parody of his favorite ‘80s singers.

While the Killers continue to incorporate New Wave conventions within their songs, Day & Age also boasts some refreshingly new styles. “I Can’t Stay” feels like a day on a tropical island complete with xylophone, horns, kettledrums and maracas. Later, on the album-closing “Goodnight, Travel Well,” the quartet deliver a rather ominous and spare sendoff to a lover that’s dominated by frosty keyboards and Flowers’ echoing vocals. Even when the band work in familiar sonic territory, like on “The World We Live In,” the results are much livelier than the Killers have managed in the past.

Older fans of the Killers may be disappointed that Day & Age doesn’t have a “Somebody Told Me” or “When You Were Young” to call its own – if anything, the album’s first single, “Human” feels like rather standard fare from this band. But Day & Age reveals a band trying to push itself a little, and the results are quite promising. The Killers may never be a groundbreaking group, but they’re finally trying to become a more original one.

Best 'Day & Age' Tracks:

“The World We Live In” (Purchase/Download)
“Goodnight, Travel Well” (Purchase/Download)
“I Can’t Stay” (Purchase/Download)

Release date – November 24, 2008
Island Records