I thought I would post my thoughts here, as I previously did for Battleborn in 2012. No one uses stupid idiot tumblr anymore but Mindsay is dead and so am I.
1. Wonderful Wonderful- I first heard this song when it came on Spotify so unfortunately my first moment thoughts are lost. My reaction was generally a solid WOWOWOWOWOWOW out of ten though. I stand by it for now. This song is a real treat. I love how ti builds, I love the darkness in it. I love the urgency in the finale. I love the little touches. I love the horn starting off the album. “There are many/ Take the one that leads to the well.” “Clothesline the shame/and you will answer to the rain. Wonderful! Wonderful!” I love this song.
2. The Man- Yeah, so I did not like this single immediately. It’s an ironic take on Flowers’ Hot Fuss/Sam’s Town persona, which I can dig. It’s grown on me. It’s been popular on the charts which was unexpected. I never expect people to like The Killers anymore. USDA CERTIFIED LEAN is the best lyric in 2017. I like the beat. I like the funk, the drums, the bass, the weird guitar sounds in the background of the verses. It sounds like a duet with David Bowie, RIP. How Flowers always finds ways to make his voice sound good in a higher and higher register is wild though. I can’t hit these notes in the car anymore!!
3. Rut- Opening with this, I’m guessing it’s Brandons voice on autotune. Interesting. He has a funny drawl starting out here. I’ll be damned if this doesn’t sound like a Phil Collins song. Boy I wish this was a FLAC. This song is really beautiful. “I’m not like her, you’re not like them”. This song is written from Tana Flowers perspective iirc. “I’ll climb and I’ll climb!” Boy is that a gospel choir in the background holy SHIT this song really built into something I didn’t expect. I am a big fan of this. It ends with the autotune, which I have no strong feelings on at this time. I do wish it got a little bigger, and maybe some strings wouldn’t have hurt. Tommy Marth would have done a great job with his Sax in this song. RIP also, Mr. Marth.
4. Life to Come- Theme so far is “Tana Flowers” in this album. That’s fine. This starts immediately making me think about some of the slower songs on Battle Born. “I’ll dropkick the shame!” I love it. One thing I like already-- these songs sound like they belong together on an album, soundwise. Unlike Battle Born which could very well have been produced by ten thousand different bands. This is alright. Brandon has become such a better singer. This song is nice. It sounds like a healthy mix of Sam’s Town vigor and Day & Age gloss. A good amalgamation of all their styles all pumped together. I like the passion in his voice more than the song itself I think. This isn’t a shakedown! It ends kind of abruptly imo.
5. Run For Cover - So far my favorite single in terms of sounding like how you expect The Killers to sound. Dave said he liked this one best but sort of as a diss to the rest of the album. It sounds kind of out of place after Rut and Life to Come. That’s not a big deal. I want to hear this song live for sure. Lyrically I love this song, I love everything about it. It’s this album’s Runaways. Nice upbeat rocker. ITS EVEN HARDER WHEN THE DIRTBAGS FAMOUS! I can almost see Ronnie’s face drumming in this song. Five Ronnie’s Squinting out of five. The synths after/during the bridge remind me of Flesh & Bone a little, for a second.
6. Tyson Vs. Douglas - I’ve been so excited for this one. I didn’t listen to the live version so I could hear it here first. The synths make me feel like dying they’re so good. I knew when I heard that synth sound live I needed to wait. They sound as good as I hoped. It’s already so nostalgic. This song may as well be about me seeing the Carolina Panthers lose to the damn Patriots back in 2003 when I was 14. I’m still not over that. This song is my favorite so far. I love the whole thing. This is a fantastic Killers song man. The guitar in the bridge is fucking killer Dave. How can you resist this one live my man! Doggone. He was killing it back there. Fuckin’ love this.
7. Some Kind of Love - I’ve been holding out on this one too. I listened to the Eno track back when he said it was based on it. I wondered how they’d work with it to make a song for the whole band. The lyric “You’ve got the soul of a truck on long distance haul” is kind of goofy. That’s Brandon Flowers though. Dude’s goofy. Sincere, always, but goofy. It’s like The Killers as a late nineties soft-rock band, just missing that damn echoey wood-block sound all those songs had. Weird, but I can appreciate it. I would probably skip this most of the time. That part near the end, you can hear something that I think is supposed to be the ocean, that staticy rise and fall before the kids start singing. This song was for Tana, and the whole theme with the shell on Wonderful Wonderful is to be able to hear the ocean no matter where you are, even if there’s nothing left. I like that. It feels almost too intimate, haha.
8. Out of my Mind - Ironically this song has an echoey wood block. right up front!! lol! “I hate when it gets serious, its like we’re going blind, take the needle off the record, I can’t stand another chorus, about Juliet's control, over mystified mankind”. The lyrics flow really well here. There’s so many rich synths in this track, so many interesting and pretty sounds all over the place. Love how the drums slam there before the chorus after the second verse. Wow this song is interesting. It’s like a dance-rock song, it honestly reminds me of some stuff off of Daft Punk’s Discovery album during the “Oh, we’re falling” section at the end. I like this. It’s strange and fun and nice.
9. The Calling - Great job Woody. The rhythm and guitar and bass and everything in this track is sexy as all hell dude, that’s just me though. This probably should have been a single instead of Wonderful Wonderful, despite how much I love Wx2. This sounds more like a radio song. “Hope they fix it all up in post”. The bridge though. FUCK me. This is great. I’m gonna be all over this track this week. Brother, just lean in to the light. Even if you have trouble with Brandon’s faith in God, which I admittedly do not, it would be easy to swept in the sound of this song.
10. Have All the Songs Been Written? - I been excited for this one. His voice sounds like it’s right beside you on the mix. Guitar sounds bluesy. I love it. Very rich. All I got to say bad about this song is I wish it was longer. I could go for 8 minutes of this. I really like it though.
Overall, for once since Sam’s Town it sounds like a cohesive whole album with good solid production. I’m excited to hear the bonus tracks as well, but this is going to do it for me. I’m satisfied, I like the direction, and I’m ready to start it all over again.
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Battle Born Track by track first impression
1. Flesh and Bone-The song from the preview, def. oh my god this is the killers song I always wanted and always knew I wanted and kind of had but now I definitely got. It’s so huge and YES is all I can think listening to it. This is HUGE. Really weird bridge though.
2. Runaways- How could they pick this as the first single when it plays right after flesh and bone? Still a great song.
3. The way it was- Sounds like a whole other band, I can’t even imagine this being the same group from hot fuss. It sounds a lot like some stuff from Flamingo.
4. Here with me- Is this an actual slow mellow love song? That doesn’t explode into a rock song? God. Yes. Please. Yes. Oh my god. It’s so good. This song really is beautiful. “I don’t want your picture on my cellphone/I want you here with me/don’t need those memories of you in my head, no, I want you here with me.”
5. A matter of time- Definitely some elements of brandon flowers solo music in here, his lyrics and singing style and even the music seem to be following that feeling. This thing is driving, it’s unbelievable that this is the same band that did “glamorous indie rock and roll”
6. Deadlines and Commitments- I like the drums. I can also hear the bass. Hey Mark. This feels like it could have been written as a bluegrass song, haha. I like this thing they’re doing, a lot of these songs are slower than they used to be, there’s more time for some really interesting music. I’m glad that they’re using the synth again. “If you should fall upon hard times/if you should lose your way/there is a place for you in this house/where you can stay” Bass/drums breakdown in the bridge holy shit yes.
7. Miss Atomic Bomb- I don’t even have words. I think I might engrave this on my heart.
8. The rising tide- this is fun. It’s even got a hallelujah line. holy shit whoa guitar solo. THEY FINALLY LET DAVE PLAY SOMETHING TOTALLY AWESOME.
9. Heart of a girl- I like the opening here. “Daddy daddy daddy all my life I been trying to find my place in this world” God, what is this, who, how, what, I love this song. This sounds like an eagles song from like “out of eden” mixed with the sad songs from flamingo or something. This song rules. It’s got a harpsichord.
10. From Here on Out- Sounds like “Was it something I said” mixed with “the clock was tickin” I think I might need to hear this one a few more times. It’s so country twangy.
11. Be Still- Dont break character/you’ve got a lot of heart/is this real or just a dream/rise up like the sun/labor till the work is done/be still. This is like a power ballad. I’m in. Big looming bass. DAMN THIS ALBUM IS GOOD.
12. Battle Born- It’s clearly… evident to see how this was the centerpiece and heart of the album. It encapsulates the whole thing. GOD that guitar is good. WHAM WHAAAAAAM. Wow. Just wow, dude. I can’t even handle this song. I want to hear this song live in person.
13. Carry me home- B side, bonus track. It sounds really tropical for some reason. Kinda standard killers sounding filler. It’s aight. Kinda overshadowed and weird coming right after battle born like that, even if it’s a bonus track PS addendum.
14. Flesh and Bone (Stuart Price remix)- Overmixed! IT’S HIS THING THOUGH, it’s definitely at home on Day & Age. It’s dancey. I prefer the not remixed one although this will most assuredly be played at every party I can play it at.
15. Prize Fighter- Ha, this is pretty cool. Lots of piano. I actually really like this, but it doesn’t sound like anything else on the album at all.
OVERALL- This trumps Day & Age, and after a few more listens, I’m fairly confident I will rate it as high as Sam’s Town.