Indie rock giants, The Killers, are a band that I've always had a love/hate relationship with. Hot Fuss is obviously a fantastic album and Sam's Town has its moments of greatness. However, Day & Age and Battleborn I was not really a fan of at all, with it's greatly overblown and frankly, indulgent tones it was hard to enjoy the project as a whole. The Killers needed to steer back into the lane towards greatness because before the release of this album they are at a crossroads and one of the routes takes them to the bottom.
Thankfully, Wonderful Wonderful is a return to form for the Las Vegas born band. And I think it's quite obvious early on that the albums title is a parody of itself and a sarcastic outlook on the world. For the most part this is a very dark album, a very introspective album that sometimes sees Brandon Flowers look into the outer world and wonder to himself what the hell is going on with the very obvious stabs at the American political system and the figurehead of it. The album begins with the title track and you immediately realise that this isn't your average album. There's phenomenally powerful synths, huge electric guitars. This album was made to fill stadiums and it could not be anymore obvious. The first single from the album, The Man, is probably one of my favourite songs of the years. With it's distorted keyboards, HUGE guitar riffs and extravagant drumming leading into the chorus. Not to mention the leader singer himself, Mr Flowers, really flexes on this track. Utilising his overtly unique vocals is something that I always want more of from him and luckily I see it so many times on this album.
Rut is the song where I feel that Brandon really bares his soul, it's a very emotionally powered track with him begging whomever he's singing to to not give up on him, it's one of those tracks though that can feel quite cheesey and very cliche asthe song progresses and the overplayed "inspiring" guitar carries on. It definitely could have been executed better, and it definitely should have been placed further into the album. Another of my favourite songs on here is Tyson vs Douglas, an ode and a metaphor as Brandon tries to imagine himself in the place of Tyson's famous title-losing fight, using this as an opportunity to ask for his advice after he suffered a public embarrassment in the way that he did. It's not something I ever imagined The Killers singing about, but nonetheless they have and I really like this song, and I think you other Boxing fans out there might dig the whole concept and backlay of the song.
What impresses me most about this album is the way in which they have evolved their songwriting skills to such an extent that they have completely changed my outlook on the band, and I've found myself going back and enjoying their older projects that little bit more now. But what I loved most about this album was how large and flambuoyant it is throughout with tracks like The Man, Life To Come and Run For Cover being so over the top, so in your face and all the more so exceedingly good for it. I'm so happy to say that The Killers are back on form, and long may it last.
9/10