The Killers
Day & Age

THE REVIEW

"Day & Age", a brilliantly passed test, is the demonstration of how the Killers can now be defined as a great rock band and no longer an emerging entity: after two marvelous albums like "Hot Fuss" and "Sam's Town", it was reasonable to expect a physiological decline in inspiration, which they have masterfully circumvented by introducing new elements to their sound, minimizing the rock component and enhancing the pop, electronic, and psychedelic ones: the final result is a catchy album, fresh and airy, a perfect demonstration of how it's possible to renew oneself and remain pleasant and never predictable, without the need for a radical change.

The backbone of "Day & Age" is composed of two sets of three songs each: the first trio, the most effervescent and immediately impactful, opens with the sonic cocktail of "Losing Touch", where sax, guitar, bass, electronics, and even a xylophone, combined with Brandon Flowers' always expressive and emotional voice, contribute to creating an original and highly impactful ride, where the unmistakable trademark of the Killers finds a new dimension. The second element of the trio is the single "Human", practically a ballad powered and emphasized with throbbing keyboards, which create a beautiful epic and airy atmosphere, very well highlighted by the video. The peak of this first segment of "Day & Age" is however "Spaceman", where the pace accelerates and the keyboards serve merely as background to the wonderful voice of Brandon Flowers, who delivers one of his best performances both in the verses and in that intense and almost frenetic chorus.

Then there's the second trio of wonders, characterized by more nuanced and fascinating atmospheres, where the melodic talent of the Killers reaches truly superior quality levels: "This Is Your Life", a beautiful song that makes atmosphere its winning weapon, supported by Mark Stoermer's bass and curious yet perfectly fitting tribal choruses, the very sweet semiacoustic ballad with plenty of horns "I Can't Stay", boasting a magnificent dreamy chorus, and finally the highest point of the entire album, a song for which no description does justice to its beauty: "Neon Tiger", wonder and pure emotion.

The remaining four songs are "A Dustland Fairytale", a romantic ballad (even too much), not bad, but it remains somewhat foreign to the context of "Day & Age" and is far from the level of "Read My Mind", "Why Do I Keep Counting?" or "My List", to name a few, "The World We Live In", a pleasant pop experiment with a slightly whimsical and psychedelic undertone, "Joy Ride", a quirky hybrid country/electronic styled song with a rather bizarre chorus, probably the worst in the Killers’ repertoire and finally "Goodnight, Travel Well", a cathartic, lingering, and despairing crescendo, punctuated by the ticking of a clock, with Brandon Flowers’ voice resonating darkly and reverberated, fading into a decrescendo finale that lets the listener breathe a sigh of relief and ensures a completely new and unexpected closure for an album as sunny and lively as this one.

We are not faced with the third consecutive masterpiece but with an album of still excellent quality, offering great pleasure and musical depth to Killers fans like myself while awaiting a "Sam's Town" part two. Besides the slight decline in inspiration and a couple of not-so-exciting episodes, the main flaw of "Day & Age" remains their usual bad habit of not including the lyrics in the booklet, a pity also because the Killers' lyrics are always very beautiful. For the rest, once again I must offer my heartfelt congratulations to the Las Vegas quartet.

"Far from the evergreen of old Assam, Far from the break fall on the trails of old Saigon, Straight from the poster town of scorn and Ritz, To bring you the wilder side of gold and glitz, But neon tiger there's a lot on your mind, They promised just to pet you, but don't you let them get you
Away, away, oh run under the heat of the southwest sun" - Neon Tiger

"Well, now I'm back at home, And I'm looking forward to this life I live, You know it's gonna haunt me, So hesitation to this life I give, You think you might cross over, You're caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, You better look it over, Before you make that leap, And you know I'm fine, But I hear those voices at night, Sometimes that justify my claim, And the public don't dwell on my transmission, Cause it wasn't televised, But it was the turning point, On a lonely night" - Spaceman