Truly Something to Fuss About
If you haven't heard them, you probably live under a rock. To put it bluntly, Hot Fuss may be the best-received debut album from a band since the Strokes' Is This It. You can hear this band anywhere these days. Whether it's in a flashy dance club on a Friday night or any old day on the car radio going to work, the Killers are bombarding America. Similar to the Strokes (the best of the grungy, fuzzy crop of bands that came out in 2001), the Killers definitely represent the pinnacle of last year's synth/dance craze. Also, like the Strokes, they are a popular band that hasn't conformed to fit the taste of the masses that love them; instead they have changed the tastes of music listeners, altering the musical landscape with their energetic, focused and orchestral sound.
It's decadent and delightful. Pop-adorned, artsy post punk. Exciting and dark. Singer Brandon Flowers - who formed the Killers in 2002 after being ditched by another band - tells tales of murderers, stalkers and heartbreakers in a way that somehow makes you want a strobe light, a stiff drink and a crowded dance floor.
Hot Fuss runs the gamut of feeling, from the high-strung, nerve-shattering, jealousy-riddled "Mr. Brightside" ("She's touching his chest now / He takes off her dress now; / Let me go," or the cocky, driving look-at-me-now attitude of "Somebody Told Me" ("Its not confidential, I've got potential"). And it's all very catchy, such as in "Midnight Show" ("You've got a real short skirt / I wanna look up, look up, look up. / We were just in time, / Let me take a little more off your mind"), which keeps the stamina of the album going. Even at 40 minutes and 10 songs in, the record still screams dance.
So please do.