"Unlike Starsailor, The Killers are perfect candidates for a Lu Cont makeover, perhaps because they sound like they should be making dance music instead of rock anyway, as the great-hooks-in-search-of-a-point conundrum of "Somebody Told Me" aptly demonstrates."
― deej., Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:19 (nineteen years ago) link
What was the "point" of the hook to "Double Shot of My Baby's Love?"
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― deej., Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― deej., Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― deej., Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:48 (nineteen years ago) link
There you go. The point to the hook in "Mr. Brightside" is that he is Mr. Brightside.
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― deej., Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― deej., Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― deej., Monday, 2 May 2005 00:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:01 (nineteen years ago) link
"Somebody Told Me" is banal and pish compared to "Mr Whiteside".
― Failin Huxley (noodle vague), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― deej., Monday, 2 May 2005 00:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Czam, Monday, 2 May 2005 00:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― deej., Monday, 2 May 2005 00:06 (nineteen years ago) link
But, you know, they're a rock band! Think of how IMMACULATE it is compared to, say, the Pop Group.
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:08 (nineteen years ago) link
"Mr. Brightside" and "Smile Like You Mean It" probably work better as songs qua songs, but I probably like them (in their original form anyways) a little bit less (the aristocatty vocals in the verses of "Smile Like You Mean It" are pretty ace though, I wonder if Stereophonics cross-bred them with Interpol's vocals to get that illustrious deep romanticism on the verses to "Dakota").
The JLC remix of "Mr. Brightside" has the best of both worlds, retaining the song's conceptual unity while adding and outperforming the melodic and sonic bombast of "Somebody Told Me". Where it sails miles above "Somebody Told Me" is that the combination of the two here allows for a really wholehearted sense of emotional immersion, whereas the open and unleavened silliness of "Somebody Told Me" creates a slight distancing effect ("Somebody Told Me" is the "Robot Rock" to the "Mr. Brightside" remix's "Digital Love").
"I'm not sure I get this rock-not-dance/dance-not-rock dichotomy."
Rock music can be dance music obv, but the concept of "rock" and all that it entails tends to enforce a level of coherence that The Killers really have to strain for and probably don't need (the fact that "Mr. Brightside" and "Smile Like You Mean It" hang together represents a triumph of pathos over logic). So when I say that The Killers might be better off as a dance act, it's insofar as they would not have to meet these expectations.
The one band that *no one* mentions as being an obvious precedent for all this stuff, and who I had at times a sneaking affection for, is the Space Monkeys. They struggled with similar issues, though in a cruder, blockier manner compared to The Killers' relative eyeliner suaveness.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:19 (nineteen years ago) link
1. Providing an easily quotable title2. Sounding vaguely like "Girls and Boys" 3. Glamming up the lyrics to fit the glam of the song4. I dunno, being a chorus. Whatever. It works.
― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:20 (nineteen years ago) link
I don't see that the Killers are "straining" after anything. And if I understand what you're saying properly, I think this is a narrow definition of "rock." Where is the "level of coherence" in "Surfin' Bird?" In Hawkwind? In the Fall?
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:20 (nineteen years ago) link
That said, I can't think of a single thing it has in common with "Somebody Told Me".
― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:21 (nineteen years ago) link
Hmph perhaps I shouldn't have sold that album.
"And if I understand what you're saying properly, I think this is a narrow definition of "rock." Where is the "level of coherence" in "Surfin' Bird?" In Hawkwind? In the Fall?"
Er, okay, indie rock then. It was a flippant point anyways. Hawkwind is dahnce music obv.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:32 (nineteen years ago) link
And yeah The Killers do strain for coherence - "Mr. Brightside" feels like it's trying to be a story, but it only becomes so by a certain sleight of hand (it seems to make sense until you try to follow the lyrics sequentially and logically). Again though, this isn't necessarily a bad thing!
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:37 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm not that enamoured of the JLC remix, I reckon JLC is used as a prop by people who want to look like they hate pop while still being able to love "What You Waiting For", "Mr Brightside' or whatever. Not that I'm accusing anyone directly.
Anyway, I think the Killers have a sense of taut groove that a lot of their contemporaries lack, but it doesn't seem instinctive or indelible from their music, as a lot of their songs DON'T HAVE IT. "Somebody Told Me" does, perhaps not to the extent of say, Duran Duran, but there's elements of this "rock music you can dance to" (that said, that Soulwax album from last year really let me down on that unfulfilled promise, so maybe I'm overcompensating by liking The Killers). "Mr Brightside" sometimes strikes me as being better and sometimes as worse - maybe it ties up far too neatly at the end. Not sure.
(Oh, and "Sugar Cane" by the Space Monkeys was a great single, yes. "Fly" done CORRECTLY, indeed.)
― edward o (edwardo), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:37 (nineteen years ago) link
haha but wait EMF's "Unbelievable" did better than "Fly" maybe. Perhaps it did.
I mean in 1998 I had no idea who Primal Scream were, but I knew that song was gonn be HUGE. And I SHOULD HAVE BEEN RIGHT GODDAMNIT
― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:39 (nineteen years ago) link
dude don't be defensive! I like your review a lot! I just don't get the dahnce/rock thing. I don't see how that would fix the band's "problem"
― miccio (miccio), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:55 (nineteen years ago) link
B-b-but the JLC mix is a better pop song than the original!
"What Ya Waitin' For" is a bit of a misnomer in this regard shorely - the reasons the original work and the reasons the remix work are entirely different. I love them both but I could totally understand loving one and hating the other.
"I just don't get the dahnce/rock thing. I don't see how that would fix the band's "problem""
It wouldn't, it would just neutralize it - no-one, not even rockists, ever expected songs by The Prodigy or Hardknox or whoever to "make sense"; the fact that they coasted along on good rockish dynamics was enough. This is true of a lot of rock too but then I wasn't trying to make a binary as such, just a point of comparison. There's a dance remix of "Somebody Told Me" which makes the point really aptly, the narrative progression of the tune loses all of the perceived awkwardness of the original because it's in a context where things like "narrative progression" are totally subordinated to groove and dynamic. This also means it loses some of it's OMGWTF quality as well - part of the enjoyment of "Somebody Told Me" is simply the fact that it doesn't gel in the places you expect it to.
That said, I reckon The Killers have the potential to be their best when that sense/dynamic tension is subsumed within a larger "pop" unity: where the song feels meaningful despite the fact that it may under closer inspection not be at all, where the overall surge and drama of the song feels unified a la "The Walk" or "Girls On Film". Where the original "Mr. Brightside" falls down for me a bit is that it's trying to get by on only one type of expansiveness, which is its emotive melodic efficiency (tense build up verse, big chorus 1, bigger chorus 2 etc.). The JLC Remix reincorporates the sonic expansiveness and openness and even slight gonzoness of "Somebody Told Me", but instead of just being there for its own sake as on STM, it's put to work in the service of the emotive structure which the original "Mr. Brightside" put in place.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:59 (nineteen years ago) link