Tom: The Killers are known best for Mr. Brightside. Then they’ve got Somebody Told Me, which is almost as popular. Plus there’s When You Were Young, Human, Spaceman, All These Things I’ve Done and Read My Mind, in probable order of how likely someone is to remember them.
Tim: Something like that, yes, although Spaceman’s my favourite (so far, at least). Anyway, I’m sure you’d like to tell us what all this means, so apologies for interrupting.
Tom: What I’m saying is this: they’ve had a couple of killer tracks on every single album so far, albeit the big anthemic ones were both on the first album, eight years ago. This is the first single off the new album. Can they keep it going?
Tom: Yes. Yes they can. It’s not going to be a singalong club favourite, but it’s just as good as any of the tracks in that B-list I mentioned above. And when their B-list is this good, well, I’ve got no complaints.
Tim: Me neither. It sounds vaguely like it could be a U2 track from their 1980s days, before they took a dip, what with all the lengthy yelling and instruments and stuff, and I like that a lot.
Tom: Well, maybe a couple of complaints. It wasn’t until that final chorus that I thought the song had properly ‘kicked in’, so I was rather surprised when it ended. A second listen solved that, though.
Tim: My main niggle is that I’d love the “we all just runaway” to keep going through the instrumental bars it leads into, because I have a tune in my head that would go brilliantly there. It goes “we’re all just runaways, runaways, dum daa dum”, although with actual words in the las three bits. Doesn’t that sound great?
Tom: Minor tweaks aside, I reckon they’ve got a solid single here, sounding fresh enough while remaining true to their original sound. Not many bands can say that, eight years on.