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Saturday, October 4, 2008

The Killers on SNL


I tuned into SNL tonight to see if Tina Fey would reprise her role as Sarah Palin, which she did, and to to my pleasant surprise the Killers were the musical guests. To this point I haven't heard anything off the new album, though I hear that a couple songs leaked.

I'm writing this as I watch, so they've only done one song so far, "Human," to be exact. While the feathers on Brandon Flowers' jacket are inexplicable, the song is decent. The big line is, "are we human or are we dancers?" I think it's one of those situations where they're trying hard enough to be trying too hard and the lyric runs the risk of feeling contrived.

As far as the sound, it's definitely more Hot Fuss than Sam's Town. After the reception the latter received, I'm not surprised. That's one of the funny things about the Killers, they're the subject of some serious backlash. These days they don't seem to do much for the old credibility.

While that might be the case, I don't really like the idea of abandoning a band just because of a few opinions when I still like listening to them. Life is too short to be a snob.

Ok, here's song #2. I think it might be "Spaceman." There's a faint shadow of "When You Were Young" in there somewhere under the synth and Flowers' straining voice. I really can't make a call. It was a bit unimpressive, but I seem to remember my first exposure to Sam's Town tracks also being their SNL performance. I wasn't crazy about "Bones" but it definitely grew on me.

I guess we'll have to wait for the album before making any big judgments, but so far I'm not holding my breath.

Happy Saturday night, kids.

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