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The Killers – Imploding The Mirage

Florian Buechting Media Review No Comments

The Killers - Imploding The Mirage

The Killers - Imploding The Mirage
3.4

Rating

 3.4/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Quite a lot of interesting songs
  • Interesting collaborations

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Overall, too weak
  • Just too few songs which are a good listen
  • Some good songs are very similar

Due to the current situation, The Killers had to wait some extra months to present their complete 2020 album: Imploding The Mirage, featuring ten new songs, was originally schedule to be published on end of June. The final release data has been shifted to 21st August 2020.

 

The Killers – About The Artists

The Killers have been founded in Las Vegas in 2001. Two of their founding members, Brandon Flowers and Dave Keuning, are still members of the band today. The current line-up is completed by Mark Stoermer and Ronnie Vanucci junior. They both joined the band in 2003, so that the lineup stood the same since that point in time. Flowers and Keuning started their common career as a duo, though. The first release of the band was the 2003 single Mr Brightside, which had in fact already been played by Flowers and Keuning in their duo times and made it to the Top 10 in the United Kingdom. The Killers’ debut album called Hot Fuss has been released on 15rh June 2004. It topped the charts in the UK, Ireland and Australia. It has been followed by Sam’s town (2006) and Day & Age (2008), which also contained the band’s likely most famous hit, Human.

As also the following albums, Battle Born (2012) and Wonderful Wonderful (2017) made it to the top of the UK charts, they are the only band who had five number one albums in a row, starting with the debut one. However, the albums have been a great success worldwide. Imploding The Mirage is the sixth album of The Killers.

 

The Killers – Imploding The Mirage – Track by Track

The ten track album lasts 42 minutes.

1. My Own Soul’s Warning

I tried going against my own soul’s warning
But in the end, something just didn’t feel right
Oh I tried diving even though the sky was storming
I just wanted to get back to where you are

After a slow intro into this first song of the album, The Killers take us right in the middle of Imploding The Mirage. My Own Soul’s Warning has a lot of power and presence – likely, this is the best track of the whole album.

2. Blowback

The second song, Blowback is very melodic. It is definitely one of my favorites of the album, sounds very similar to previous albums’ tracks. Nice one.

3. Dying Breed

The band (or the team around them) selected this song as one of the tracks to be released before the album. I can’t really reconcile this decision. The song has a very characteristic The Killers sound, but is overall not too catchy. It feels to over-power to me, which makes it a bit of confusing to me.

4. Caution

Caution starts slowly with a choir-alike intro and then becomes a happy, rhythmic, a bit of summer-alike track. The verse is nice, the chorus is very catchy. Very similar to My Own Soul’s Warning, though.

5. Lightning Fields (feat. K.D. Lang)

An imagination of country music: for this track, the Killers partnered with Edmonton singer-songwriter K.D. Lang, who has been quite active in the country / country-pop scene. However. it takes over two minutes in this 4:18 minutes song that Lang has some significant presence in Lightning Fields. Her key impact is some power towards the end – apart from that, that’s a track Greenpeace is right to complain about the carbon footprint of bringing these artists in one place.

6. Fire in Bone

Even though the listeners’ reviews of this track are rather positive, I cannot really identify with Fire in Bone. The bass groove in the background is quite nice – but apart from that, I struggle to identify sufficient catching elements. At most in the average range to me.

7. Running Towards A Place

And if we’re running towards a place
Where we’ll walk as one
Will the hardness of this life be overcome?
If I lay with you in love
Will you meet me there?
And shake the lighting from the locks
Of your unbound hair
Can two become one?

I am quite exposed to Killers music, also as my wife is quite a fan of the band – but Running Towards A Place is another track which makes me struggle to find really good elements. It rather feels like an average The Killers cover band towards the end of a slightly too long concert than the originals.

8. My God (feat. Weyes Blood)

For My God, the Killers selected to collaborate with California-origin singer-songwriter Weyes Blood. I would not call the song a top track, but the 32-aged definitely adds character to the song. Like it.

9. When the Dreams Run Dry

We’re all gonna die
And when they’re closing up the door
Nobody wishing that they worked more (Hey!)
Don’t’ bother with your suitcase
And we’ll beat the birds
Down to Acapulco Bay
Or Honolulu on hearsay
Running at our own pace
And I’ll be on your side
When the dreams run dry

The song is quite loud and powerful – which makes you feel it is a better song than it actually is. At least, it is melodic. I can hardly stand the background melodies, though. They distract me from the vocals – the lyrics are not too bad, though, definitely.

10. Imploding the Mirage

The last song (and the last roughly four minutes) belong to the title track of the album. The song is some kind of cheeky. I like the accentuated vocals, which make it a bit straighter and easier to follow the track.

The Killers – Imploding The Mirage – Spotify

Here is the Spotify preview widget:

 

The Killers – Imploding The Mirage – My View

As said, due to my wife, there is quite some presence of The Killers in our household. Imploding The Mirage will likely not have too many arguments to be played frequently at home or during longer drives. The band did much better in the past. The songs keep a certain sound and character, but there is simply just too few good ones. Bad luck – this album is rather average.

 

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