The Killers

A month or two ago, I picked up the debut album "Hot Fuss" by the relatively new band The Killers because I had read so much critical acclaim about it, because it is in heavy rotation on college radio, and people seem to like it so I thought I'd give it a shot. I played the disc in my car for a few days, listened to it a couple of times over and took it out of the car and forgot about it. I thought it was okay, but nothing to really get very excited about. I hadn't heard anything ground-breaking but it wasn't awful either.

Then a few weeks went by and I found myself wanting to hear it again, so I put it back in the car and tried it again...and again...and again.

I still think the album is mediocre at best, but it is really catchy, even in its most annoying moments. For example, the single "Somebody Told Me" is a total throw-away pop song that when I listen to it I actually find myself getting slightly irritated. The reason for this is the complete lack of quality in the lyrics. The song's chorus goes like this: "Somebody told me that you have a boyfriend that looks like a girlfriend that I had in February of last year." That lyric not only barely makes any sense, but it is one of the worst lyrics I've ever heard.

Yet, when I listen to the song, I find myself kind of shaking my ass and moving with the beat a little. And invariably, four hours later that awful lyric is still stuck in my head. It's an infectious tune, I'm telling you.

My response to the rest of the tracks on the album is pretty similar, with "Somebody Told Me" being the only one that I find downright irritating. The songs are catchy, but never very noticeable.

It's an odd album and I can't really see how it's become as popular as it has. Yet, I can't say that the popularity is completely undeserved. I think the surge in sales may be due primarily to the neo-80s trend that is happening in popular music with The Killers riding the coattails of other bands like Franz Ferdinand. "Hot Fuss" is one of those rare albums that I can't even form a real, solid and proper opinion about it.

I don't even know why I wrote this post. It started out with my having something interesting to say about this CD, but devolved into what this sight is all about, something completely useless.