Music Review: The Killers' Sawdust

Like most music trends, I'm usually late to the party. I didn't get into The Killers until hearing All These Things That I've Done as part of a bizarre hallucinogenic musical number in the film Southland Tales. Shortly after I downloaded the song from iTunes, The Killers released Day and Age, and I picked up the single track Human. Giving it a spin, I fell in love the sound of Brandon Flowers's voice, and I picked up the whole album. It has been in rotation since then, with Human being one of my favorite songs to sing at random.

During a shopping excursion last week, I picked up Sawdust without even looking over the track list. I was that certain I'd enjoy the album, and I was not disappointed. Comprised of B-sides and rarities, the first track, Tranquilize, is a powerful ballad that sets the tome for most of the album. Strong vocals fuse with poppy, sometimes grungy tracks, though there are also many detours into other forms of musical experimentation.

The songs which really surprised me were the two cover tunes. Brandon's cover of the Dire Straits tune Romeo and Juliet is every bit as enjoyable as Mark Knopfler's performance in the original. Then Brandon goes one step further in a cover of the Kenny Rogers hit, Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town. Here the band goes for a true country sound, and Brandon's lyrics become subdued, even if they can't match the growling power of Kenny Rogers. Despite not quite capturing the same growl, it's a fantastic cover, and one which makes me bob my head whenever the song plays.

It's hard to pick favorites from the seventeen tracks, but the two which I find myself singing are Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf, and Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town. But there is really only a slim margin that puts these two in the lead, and this album now goes into my small collections of records that I can listen to from beginning to end without once feeling the need to reach for the skip button.

Once again, this Las Vegas band proves that they have the creative chops to compose a full album of great music, and so long as they keep this trend up, they can count on me to be a full time fan.