The Killers
Hot Fuss

THE REVIEW

We took a walk that night but it wasn't the same...

These are the 11 words that open an album produced in the Year of Our Lord 2004, which has unmistakably marked the artistic and musical career of four boys from Las Vegas: we are talking about the alternative rock band known as "The Killers". In the same year when a production of the caliber of American Idiot was garnering recognition and certifications from the mainstream, these young men were slowly climbing the ranks until they offered a confident, proud album full to the brim that reached the record figure of 5 million albums sold.

Those 11 words are part of the opening track named "Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine" which perhaps wasn't chosen at random as the album's opening track (memories of the demo proposed to the label Island Records); it features a solid rhythmic structure dominated by a damned funky bass riff and the guitar doing a lot of dark work, except in the choruses where it takes the spotlight it deserves, keyboards that feel like cream on a cake, and lyrics that tell the final episode of the so-called "Murder Trilogy" (that is, three songs about the murder of a girl, Jenny, precisely) where the murderer brazenly denies to the police officers that he committed that crime.

The following song is the one that more than any other represented the turning point for Brandon & Co. namely "Mr. Brightside", an interesting punk-revival experiment where the lyrics depart from the verse-chorus structure and instead use a classicist "start to finish" form that well expresses the redundancy that the writer feels inside once he encounters his ex with someone else, and going home, imagines the two of them in intimate attitudes drawing through self-love the strength to say that he is the light, Mr. Brightside. With the third track, we stroll through the streets of Orange County with "Smile Like You Mean It" (chosen as the soundtrack for the TV series The O.C.) and from certain points of view presents the continuation of the theme of Mr. Brightside, with very melancholic singing and a vocal timbre that perfectly expresses the resignation of having to get used to faking smiles when inside one only has sadness for what has been lost.

A carefree air is breathed in the track "Somebody Told Me" which is characterized by an appeal perhaps no other track on the album has (I remember very well that I heard it on several mainstream radios in 2005, a rarity for this group): a danceable, easy-listening track, which plays entirely on the ambiguity of the lyrics and on a melodic structure that fears no comparison with any other production. Gospel choruses and rock atmospheres from a few decades ago distinguish "All These Things That I've Done" (which tells the story of a Vietnam veteran returned to America) and "Andy You're A Star" (Brandon's youthful infatuation with an American football player from his college); the former becoming a veritable anthem performed at every live show and viscerally loved by the audience.

Track number 7: back to the demo, here's "On Top" a song with a strong emotional component, the rhythm offered by the musical lines is very cadenced with a little keyboard riff that repeats throughout the track; the true strength of On Top is the lyrics, reading them you get the impression of having images in front of your eyes about how loving a person is also waiting for less intense moments and how overcoming separations is part of discovering the velvet sun that warms the hearts of two lovers. We're on top. Indie atmospheres and simple chords distinguish the pair "Change Your Mind" and "Believe Me Natalie", both start slow only to explode in the final part, not exactly the Killers' brightest expression of talent but nonetheless appreciable fillers. Central chapter of the Murder Trilogy in "Midnight Show", line after line we move from the excitement of a couple for what promises to be a wonderful evening to the fatal murder committed under the stars, accompanied by fast, distinct notes that well underline the frenzy of that night.

Completely different is "Everything Will Be Alright", a slow, keyboard ballad self-produced by the band, it's a little love song pronounced by an electronically distorted voice; a very '80s piece that in some ways recalls a very subdued Bowie. The calmness is precisely the star of this piece, defying worries everything will be alright. In itself, the aforementioned track would have been an excellent finale on which to hang the "The End" sign or maybe "That's all folks," but in the end, the four of them offer us a little gem called "Glamorous Indie Rock'N'Roll", accused of hypocrisy by a good part of the American indie community for its somewhat controversial lyrics; it was later clarified by Brandon that it was a sort of playful exaggeration and that the issue about the lyrics was greatly exaggerated, surely the song presents a very interesting melodic component and clearly inspired by Queen, as in a couple of scales where Dave Keuning closely reminds of Brian May.

We have on our hands an excellent product for being a debut album, a fairly fluid listen that, however, does not give the listener a chance to engage in anything else, but will demand constant and total attention; very interesting lyrics, introspective enough and positively structured, the sound very much recalls the typical American rock and a melting pot of influences ranging from classic rock to more commercial products of the time. Listenable, danceable, 5 million albums sold: the best is yet to come...