Don't you feel the time slipping away?

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

20/08/21 : Pressure Machine - The Killers


Some groups produce a first album of such quality that the only way they can go is down - and then there's The Killers.  With Hot Fuss, they produced a first side of the first album - "Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine", "Mr. Brightside", "Smile Like You Mean It", "Somebody Told Me" and "All These Things That I Have Done" - of such superb quality that they really left themselves with nowhere to go.  Which was unfortunately completely proven by "Andy, You're A Star" being the next track...

I haven't minded any of the stuff they've done since, but from what I've heard every album has got more laid back that they just feel like a different group from those early days - I was expecting this to be "perfectly fine" but hardly essential.

And so it very much turned out.  Brandon has a fine voice (it definitely feels like he's been taking lessons) and uses it well here with some lovely falsetto and the guys on the instrument do a good job in provided a stripped back accompaniment for him.  But it doesn't really feel like they're trying very hard - maybe I'm being harsh and it's a lot of work to make things sound so effortless, but, if so, then they should do a bit more work to make it sound a bit less effortless.  It's a perfectly listenable 51 minutes though - I've got nothing to say against it, but I've also not really got anything to say for it.

We're at #1 in the charts again this week and this was another album that managed four weeks on the charts before disappearing from view - this seems to be a surprisingly common occurrence for albums that come straight in at #1.  Only one other new entry in the top 10 this week - Jungle at #3 which I probably would have preferred to listen to.

Wikipedia tells me it's a concept album based on Brandon's childhood and is heavily influenced by Bruce Springsteen.  Hmmm - I mean I guess if I was to listen to it again, I could probably hear a bit of Nebraska in there, but I'm struggling to see the heavy influence.  The album was generally well received critically, but I do find myself agreeing with this comment "A little more campfire crackle to his delivery would have helped lift these good short stories from the prettily glowing embers of forgettable and occasionally recycled melodies".  It did pretty well in a lot of countries, but it seems like we were keenest on as it only made #1 over here (#9 in the US).

"Customers also listened to" albums by Brandon Flowers and Keuning - both of whom are in some band or other - and Alex Cameron, who's mates with Brandon.  I thought this was perfectly fine but there's no danger of me ever listening to it again, I'm afraid.

13/08/21 - Didn't expect to see him so soon!
27/08/21 - An album for a lovely sunny day

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