I have come to the conclusion that Mr Brightside by The Killers might just be the best song of the past ten years

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I'm sure I'm the 50th person to say this, but just in case, isn't the verse of this song just a little too much like that (far superior) tune "Born Slippy" from the Trainspotting sizzoundtrack? Guess I'll have to go home and do a compare the next time the assy Killers video comes on VH-1.

― BlastsOfStatic (BlastsofStatic), Monday, 2 May 2005 20:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Reminds me of Altogether Now by The Farm, still rather wonderful though.

No. This song nicks Beethoven, that song nicked Pachelbel.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 2 May 2005 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never heard the 5min remix, maybe that's one of the main causes of people's indifference?

I agree with Ronan, the 8min version at least is not "dahnce" music really. My reference points when I heard it were The Cure's "Plainsong", Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill", The Blue Nile's "Headlights On The Parade", New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle", and generally speaking extended mixes of 80s pop songs (not to mention prog rock what with the shiny keyboards).

One of the clinchers for me in terms of why the remix seems to work better is the way that the changing backing music for the two verses (identical lyrically and almost identical vocally) seems to give totally different meanings and/or resonances to those lines: the first verse being angry and the second being winsomely wounded stiff-upper-lip fragile.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

The 5 minute version got spread around ILX a lot from JLC feeding frenzy on the YSI/gmail thread.

― stephen morris (stephen morris), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:19 (twenty-one years ago)

It was like an STD, no joke; its why I initially didn't care about the thing, until I heard the er "real" version.

― Lethal Dizzle (djdee2005), Monday, 2 May 2005 23:16 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

I just heard the JLC mix again and am struck by how the first two minutes sound like "Smalltown Boy."

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 13 June 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

I have decided that it's time for the Killers to go away now, thanks.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 13 June 2005 13:41 (twenty years ago)

Alex, you need them to touch your chest so your stomach can feel small

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 13 June 2005 13:44 (twenty years ago)

I'll pass, thanks.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 13 June 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

I'm getting kinda sick of "Mr. Brightside," but a lot of it's because I wish radio would start playing "Smile Like You Mean It." There was a piece on NPR a couple weeks ago where they interviewed various radio programmers and asked them to predict what the summer jams were gonna be. One dude said "Brightside," and I was like, nooo, don't drive it into the ground.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 13 June 2005 14:52 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

I don't listen to much alt-rock radio, so my exposure has been minimal, but I don't hate "Mr. Brightside" as much as I used to.

The chorus is awful - it sounds so thin and reedy, the OC version of danceable or something - but I really like the verses (excellent adolescent emo tripe) and the overall production isn't quite as edgeless and annoying as the first single.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Sunday, 28 August 2005 07:20 (twenty years ago)

I'm tired of this fucking group

― joe schmoe (joeschmoe), Sunday, 28 August 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

I did a quick skim of this thread, and I'm pretty sure no one has yet mentioned how the vocal melody is 90% made up of singing one note and occasionally singing a halfstep below that note. It's not a particularly exciting vocal arrangement, which may be part of the reason people aren't feeling it.

I still like this song, but man, talk about overexposure..

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Sunday, 28 August 2005 15:45 (twenty years ago)

That's kind of a classic hook, though, to stay on one note like that while the chords change. The intervallic range of a particular melody doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how well the melody works.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 28 August 2005 16:06 (twenty years ago)

I think "Mr. Brightside" is the rare radio single that holds up well to being overplayed.

having now heard it at a minimum of 200 times, i BEG to differ.

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 28 August 2005 16:53 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

i dig this song; reminds me of my childhood in the early 1980s. it took me about 20 listens before i started appreciating it though.

― richard wood johnson, Wednesday, 21 September 2005 16:55 (twenty years ago)

my ex-boyfriend wrote lyrics from this song on the wall of our apartment when we broke up = dud. he was, the song is, and so is writing lyrics anywhere.

― jxnx (jxnx), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 18:49 (twenty years ago)

The live performance of this at the MTV Music Awards was rather lacklustre (but then they all were - I found myself in the curious position of explaining Coldplay to my boyfriend and saying "they actually usually sound better than this") and I was reminded of how much I prefer the JLC mix.

I increasingly find the singer hottt, though.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 22 September 2005 04:58 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

.. to be covered as a b-side by....

One music industry source who's had sneak preview of the cover told NME.COM: "It's a fairly faithful cover, but McFly's version strips out the synths, adds some rather weedy vocal harmonies and is more pop punk-lite than The Killers' stomping 80s-tinged arrangement."

They added: "Killers fans will probably cringe, and it won't fill indie disco dancefloors as efficiently as the original."

'I Wanna Hold You' hits the shops on October 17.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 6 October 2005 14:48 (twenty years ago)

neat.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Thursday, 6 October 2005 14:58 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...

LOLZ!!!

― Alex in Baghdad, Friday, 5 May 2006 21:07 (twenty years ago)

The JLC remix is so much better than the original. And "Somebody Told Me" is better than either.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Saturday, 6 May 2006 00:23 (twenty years ago)

eleven months pass...

hee

― Curt1s Stephens, Saturday, 7 April 2007 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

I just started relistening to this song a few days ago. It still kicks so much ass.

― Tape Store, Monday, 9 April 2007 03:17 (nineteen years ago)

^ homo

― JW, Monday, 9 April 2007 05:57 (nineteen years ago)

WHATEVS!

― Tape Store, Monday, 9 April 2007 05:59 (nineteen years ago)

I still stand by my assessment that all of the Killers songs I've heard (with the exception of Somebody Told Me) sound like a rocker from the Chameleons. The obvious exception being the high pitched voice, but even then, I find the singing style similar.

― Cunga, Monday, 9 April 2007 06:19 (nineteen years ago)

Cunga just made me regret reviving this thread.

― Curt1s Stephens, Monday, 9 April 2007 06:22 (nineteen years ago)

"hey let's go watch 'the o.c.' and call each other emos"

― That one guy that quit, Monday, 9 April 2007 10:09 (nineteen years ago)

I liked it most in the Lifestyle Sports ad, That was when most Irish people heard of them too. I think.

― I know, right?, Monday, 9 April 2007 10:18 (nineteen years ago)

The first Killers album was actually quite nice. Sort of a cross-in-between postpunk and New Romanics, like Magazine or something. I don't like this Bruce Springsteen thing about their most recent one though.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 9 April 2007 14:27 (nineteen years ago)

The Killers are way too mainstream.

― Camenend Bob Dole, Monday, 9 April 2007 14:38 (nineteen years ago)

Didn't mind the first album, but it seems to me it was a 'cheat' in terms of what it half-successfully suggested the band were about. Then: Mr. Flowers w/cropped hair & leering 'tache (where'd the eyeliner go, Brandon?) unleashing new album that is basically a vehicle for Mormon rhetoric & propaganda... nah, I passed on it.

Even ignoring those (IMO considerable) downsides, what I heard of the singles said to me, here is a band who already sounded like an okayish, 'fun' parody now sounding like a lukewarm parody of themselves (i.e. a parody of a parody, dig?). Also, sundry Bowie allusions -- an insult to the Dame, who I would hope, like me, has now decided these feckless dorks are a waste of space.

― chrissie_, Monday, 9 April 2007 15:25 (nineteen years ago)

The exchange at the beginning of this thread is priceless.

― HI DERE, Monday, 9 April 2007 15:54 (nineteen years ago)

Gay panic, I call it.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 9 April 2007 15:58 (nineteen years ago)

this song rules
next single was even better
unfortunately the new singles have all been pretty bad and no fun. by which i mean 'no homo'

― A B C, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 06:29 (nineteen years ago)

Cunga just made me regret reviving this thread.

I'm not saying they're as good as the Chameleons! Just because two bands share the same tent doesn't mean they both belong on stage, especially at the same time.

― Cunga, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 09:01 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe it's just "Up The Down Escalator" that sounds vaguely similar now that I think about it.

― Cunga, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 09:03 (nineteen years ago)

Sound more like Magazine than Chameleons to me.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 20:37 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

I GOT SOUL, BUT I'M NOT A SOLDIER!

(wrong song)

― Tape Store, Tuesday, 7 August 2007 02:03 (eighteen years ago)

i wish the killers didn't make a second album.

― Jordan Sargent, Tuesday, 7 August 2007 03:13 (eighteen years ago)

I think it will probably be remembered as one of the better mainstream songs of this era.

― Richard Wood Johnson, Tuesday, 7 August 2007 03:27 (eighteen years ago)

I like "When We Were Young." It almost made it onto my top 10 list last year.

― Tape Store, Tuesday, 7 August 2007 03:37 (eighteen years ago)

when you* were young

― Tape Store, Tuesday, 7 August 2007 03:37 (eighteen years ago)

"I got soul but I'm not a soldier" made me cringe so hard that I nearly crashed my car when I first heard it

― Curt1s Stephens, Tuesday, 7 August 2007 03:53 (eighteen years ago)

absolutely fuckin shit song. and i don't normally get that animated about sonfs i don't like

― Charlie Howard, Tuesday, 7 August 2007 04:01 (eighteen years ago)

five months pass...

STILL AWESOME

― Tape Store, Saturday, 19 January 2008 07:14 (eighteen years ago)

this vs. "All My Friends"

― Tape Store, Saturday, 19 January 2008 07:15 (eighteen years ago)

as i was reading this thread i was thinking "what happened to tape store?" and apparently the answer is "only posts to mr brightside thread"

― J0rdan S., Saturday, 19 January 2008 08:00 (eighteen years ago)

both songs you mention are awesome tho i don't get the connection besides both being good

― J0rdan S., Saturday, 19 January 2008 08:01 (eighteen years ago)

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