THE KILLERS | HOT FUSS
The summer of ’04 was a blast of new indie music, iPod commercials, and an emerging scene of garage-rock and disco-punk bands. “Indie” music as we now understand it was making its proper calcification into the lore of musical genres. Stadium rock was shifting towards new acts like Interpol, The Strokes, and Franz Ferdinand and a new brand of danceable rock was all the stylistic rage. Among this outpouring came a giant band from Las Vegas hailed as the “Next Big Thing” in music by the UK press.The Killers had arrived with a searing debut album and a mirror-studded keyboard.
Mixing guitar-driven indie mixed with suave new wave synth pop, The Killers weren’t afraid of skinny jeans or a little mascara. Led by pretty-boy Brandon Flowers’ charisma and flamboyance, the band became immediately relevant to the indie scene on a worldwide level. Hot Fuss is a near-perfect debut album and every track is injected with appealing ear-worms, gloss, and flag-waving swagger. It’s singles have become historic and classically canonical, especially the racing Mr. Brightside and the anthemic “All These Things That I’ve Done.” These are the songs to end festival sets with, songs that send the indie hymnals of a generation up to the heavens.
The romance is all in Flowers’ playful lyrics which are effervescent and light-footed. Lines like “we had a fight on the promenade out in the rain” could only pass under the guise of a slight faux Brit-pop accent. “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine” serves as the perfect opener, letting the minor guitar chord strumming unravel into a turbo-charged baseline straight out of Duran Duran’s handbook. It was only a matter of time before drops of Joy Division, The Cure, New Order, and The Smiths came flooding into the influence pool of a new generation of musical swimmers. “Somebody Told Me” kicked off their radio takeover with its trendy gender-blending lyrics of the famous “boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend.” It all made the tight fashionable clothes, jackets, and make-up more acceptable to the mainstream, maybe even your mom
“Smile Like You Mean It” further pours on the frothy charm. The chorus comes from a man who’s sad about potentially losing his love interest for the moment, but confident more escapades will find him down the glittery road ahead. “On Top” chirps out a synth line if nothing more than to prove they want to be dance floor capable, and “Change Your Mind” fills out the required guitar-forward drive to prove they can match anything The Strokes can do.
The unsung hero of the album is “Believe Me Natalie”, a brassy and glorious song about a go-go dancer. It creates the albums climax during its last two minutes of play and solidifies the band as both triumphant, mournful, and majestic. The entire effort has summed what it feels like to be confident and uncertain, optimistic, sensitive, and fearless all at the same time – and all while looking good and keeping a clean poise.
Whether or not you like what The Killers were doing with Hot Fuss its impossible to deny their talent for catch songwriting power and flawless hooks. Bands like The Stills and White Lies would continue to summon the same post-punk and new wave saints which have now become permanently injected into the DNA of all indie music. The 80’s nostalgia created with Hot Fuss was the beginning of the new wave of new wave, and it still continues to resonate in music today as new artists remember Rio…and get down.
This cool liquid confectionery is a play on the colours of the album cover and the glow of the disco era, where cocktails were sugary, bright, and colourful. The grenadine and Blue Curacao are as sweet as the albums melodies, while the Ouzo offers an anise flavour to stand in for the album’s underlying emotional sentiment, like black liquorice overpowering a bowl of red candy. The lemon and soda provide the bubbly sparkle of the band and its charismatic leader.
