I can be such a sucker for hype. Sometimes, it turns out to be entirely true, like in the case of Death Cab For Cutie or The Arcade Fire; other times, you\u2019re just left with a band posturing in order to live up to their \u2018Best band of the year\/decade\/ever!\u2019 title when the material doesn\u2019t. And that hype is exactly the reason why, even after being decidedly neutral on the Las Vegas synth-rockers androgyny-soaked lead single, \u201cSomebody Told Me\u201d (\u201cSomebody told me that you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I had in February of last year\u201d), the album somehow ended up in my possession, bought completely of my own vocation. <\/p>\n
So how does the rest of Hot Fuss <\/i>bode for The Killers (comprised by Brandon Flowers<\/a> on vocals and keyboards, guitarist\u00a0 Dave Keuning<\/a>, bassist Mark Stoermer<\/a> and Ronnie Vannucci Jr.<\/a> on drums)? <\/p>\n The album starts out promising enough with \u201cJenny Was A Friend Of Mine,\u201d where lead singer and keyboardist Brandon Flowers first establishes his fascinations with anything 80s and murdered girlfriends. Okay, strange combo, but with Flowers\u2019 impassioned vocals, pounding drums and bass weaving in and out of each verse, the track ends up working without sounding too much like it was lifted straight from a Duran Duran album.<\/p>\n Next up is the second single, \u201cMr. Brightside,\u201d the band\u2019s ode to voyeurism set to a relentless rhythm, distorted guitars and its memorable chorus: \u201cDestiny is calling me, open up my eager eyes — I\u2019m Mr. Brightside.\u201d It got way too much airplay, but take my word for it, it’s enjoyable within the context of the album.<\/p>\n The first side of Hot Fuss<\/i> is easily where the best material lies, rounded out by \u201cAll These Things That I\u2019ve Done.\u201d The track starts out with just wistful vocals and keyboards, then throws in guitars and drums before switching directions entirely and ditching the music in favor of a gospel choir singing, \u201cI\u2019ve got soul but I\u2019m not a soldier.\u201d Not being overplayed adds to its appeal for me, but it\u2019s also one of the most surprising and distinctive moments of the album.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, things start to turn sour at the halfway mark. \u201cBelieve Me Natalie\u201d drags on for too long, floundering from Flowers\u2019 delivery and only saved by the prominent drums while the album ends on a low point with its aimless, veering closer \u201cEverything Will Be Alright.\u201d Mostly, the strength of Hot Fuss<\/i> ends up having to rest in a few tracks; it\u2019s striving for Las Vegas-esque bigness, but some of it is too flat to get there. It\u2019s worth a few listens, but not entirely deserving of the surrounding buzz. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":28440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7785],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-39890","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-killers","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39890"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}