I think I’ve been dismissing the latest album by The Killers, 2008’s Day & Age (amazon) (itunes), largely because it’s not Hot Fuss 2.0. In fact it’s not even close to Hot Fuss. Granted there are tracks like Human and Spaceman which seem to align quite well with the oft revered first offering from these glamorous desert dwellers, but the album as a whole strays quite a bit from what many fans were hoping for. I think if you give the album another try you’ll appreciate it for what it actually is.
I’m going to go ahead and compare this album to Neon Bible by Arcade Fire. Neon Bible wasn’t exactly what a lot of fans and critics wanted to hear. It’s not a direct continuum of their first album, Funeral, but it is (when looked at objectively) a solid effort from a great band. Day & Age is just that; a solid album from a great band. Unfortunately it feels as if it was largely passed over simply because it is different than a reworked version of Hot Fuss (Day & Age sold just over 700,000 copies while Hot Fuss cleared 3,000,000 in the US).
Well I’ve been listening to this album a lot over the past month or so (I accidentally damaged a bunch of the discs I normally have with me in my car) and it really has grown on me. A track that I find particularly haunting is the slow burn of A Dustland Fairytale. In this song Brandon is singing about the relationship his parents had, the struggle his father had between addiction and faith, and the battle with cancer that plagued his mother.
mp3 : The Killers – A Dustland Fairytale
lyrics
A Dustland Fairytale beginning
Just another white trash county kiss
In ’61, long brown hair, foolish eyes
He looks just like you’d want him to
Some kind of slick chrome American Prince
A bluejean serenade, and moon river, what you do to me
I don’t believe you
Saw Cinderella in a party dress
But she was looking for a nightgown
I saw the devil wrapping up his hands
He’s getting ready for the showdown
I saw the minute that I turned away
I got my money on a pawn tonight
Change came in disguise of revelation, set his soul on fire
She says she always knew he’d come around
And the decades disappear like sinking ships
But we persevere, God gives us hope
But we still fear what we don’t know
The mind is poison
Castles in the sky sit stranded, vandalized
Drawbridges closing
Saw Cinderella in a party dress
But she was looking for a nightgown
I saw the devil wrapping up his hands
He’s getting ready for the showdown
I saw the ending where they turned the page
I took my money and I ran away
Straight to the valley of the great divide
Out where the dreams are high
Out here, the wind don’t blow
Out here, the good girls die
And the sky won’t snow
Out here, the birds don’t sing
Out here, the fields don’t grow
Out here, the bell don’t ring
Out here, the bell don’t ring
Out here, the good girls die
Now Cinderella, don’t you go to sleep
It’s such a bitter form of refuge
Oh don’t you know, the kingdom’s under siege
And everybody needs you
Is there still magic in the midnight sun
Or did you leave it back in 61?
In the cadence of a young man’s eyes
I wouldn’t dream so high
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The World Forgot 
I’m glad you liked Day & Age. It was one of my favorite records of 2008, and I felt it was a much more solid effort than Sam’s Town.
I also saw them live touring this album, and they still put on a fantastic show.
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I was broadly dismissing Day & Age until a couple of weeks ago when “Dustland Fairytale” came on shuffle. And I maintain that its the only good song I’ve heard off that album.
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