The Killers - Imploding the Mirage (August 21, 2020) Album • Page 19

This good.

 

I listened to a few on the way to work this morning. This is gonna be one of their best for sure

 

Blowback really reminds me of Full Moon Fever, for some reason.

 

This band is so great. Can’t wait to hear this tomorrow.

 

Running Towards a Place is just straight up TWOD, haha. So cool to hear them go in this direction.

 

This is fucking phenomenal. Holy crap.

 

Good stuff.

 

it's no simple coincidence that tomorrow is also payday.

 

as someone who has hated everything theyve done since sams town, i am loving this

 

Immediately skyrockets into my top 3 and maybe top 2 Killers albums. 40 minutes of pure escapism.

My least favorite year ever has been my favorite music year ever.

 

The last two tracks are fucking great. Happy to see that, given that The Killers have a history of not always sticking the landing when closing out their albums.

 

I would very much like to drive through the desert now.

 

I loved the acoustic version of Blowback and was initially worried they’d overdo it on the studio version, but man when the drums kick in midway through the “puts out a cigarette and gets on the bus” line I damn near slapped my steering wheel off.

Glad I went with the “aimless drive around” method for the first listen on this one

 

I love these guys and their sound, pretty much everything they do really just hits a sweet spot for me. With a few years distance, Wonderful Wonderful really does mostly sound like them just going through the motions, and I do enjoy that album.

But this album sounds and feels inspired on the level of Brandon's solo album The Desired Effect, but with that added bit of magic that comes from the rest of the band - or maybe just Ronnie I guess as the case may be. A Killers album though.

 

“My god, just look who’s back in business” is the catchiest lyric and also what I whispered to myself four tracks in when I realized I was suddenly burning down the highway skyline on the back of a hurricane

 

Agreed, with regards to Wonderful Wonderful. With some separation, I've really cooled down on that album-- I don't think it's bad by any stretch, but it kind of feels like them just getting the monkey off their back. A lot of great ideas and a few truly excellent songs, as well as thematically cohesive, but it does feel a bit eclectic in retrospect.

This album, on the other hand, immediately sounds more like the proper follow up to Battle Born. And while I want to be a bit more measured in how I throw accolades on it right out of the gate, I'm just extremely happy.

 

I just think Wonderful Wonderful is a Flowers solo album that they decided to try to bill as a Killers record. It is so personal and intimate compared to their other music, and comparatively sparse musically, and between those factors I think it would have been better received and made more sense as a Flowers album. I wouldn’t say it’s a “going through the motions” album, though. A lot going on with that one lyrically.

 

Also, which song is The War on Drugs on?

 

Battle Born I liked a lot, but there were 3 or 4 tracks that never did anything for me. I never really connected with Wonderful Wonderful unfortunately; I can appreciate how personal a lot of the songs are but I found myself only really returning to the self-aware silliness of The Man and the b-side Money on Straight.

This one’s fire all the way through, not a dud on it. I guess I’d call it a bit top-heavy but only because the back half is “really good” while the first half is “I think my soul just left its frame and floated away” good.

I’m thrilled they’re getting such a good response for this one too. I’ve been lukewarm on some of their stuff but I always felt like they got a bad rep — yeah they’re always unabashedly over-the-top so the misses are easy to mock, but I’ll take that in an American rock n roll band any day of the week. Like when Flowers declared Sam’s Town the best album since God invented sound or whatever and everyone was shitting on him, I was like, that’s what I want from my rock stars. We’ve got plenty of down to earth “we’re so uncool that we’re cool” indie bands. I’m glad that six albums in, the Killers are still absolutely going for it.

 

Steven Hyden’s piece said he’s on Blowback (which wouldn’t have been my first guess, but like Hyden also said it’s clear that Granduciel’s fingerprints are all over the album).

 

I guess I meant more musically than lyrically. The music on WW really seems to lack that spark or bit of Killers magic that elevates the songs to the next level. That sort of cheesy bombast they've never shied away from that is so damn enjoyable. They've never really been a band where I pay much attention to the lyrics.

 

so many bands have said this with maybe 2% pulling through haha

 

Running Towards a Place easily sounds the most like War on Drugs IMO. Like compositionally, tonally, etc, it reminds me exactly of a couple of their songs. Other ones maybe have similar sonics but are far more "Killers"-y hookwise.

 

Yeah, Adam's on "Blowback" which is by far one of the least WOD-sounding songs to me. Shawn Everett did the production, mixing, and engineering for this record though and it seems like he worked pretty heavily on the last War On Drugs album (as well as Alabama Shakes' Sound & Color, which is one of my favorite-sounding records of the last decade).

 

I didn't like the closer the first few times I heard it, but now I'm all-in on how joyous it feels.