I like lists. I’ve said it before. And I started putting lists of my favorite stuff to give me subjects to blog about, but I did a piss-poor job of following up with that. So I thought I would try to put together a list once again once again.

A while back, wifey and I (BTW, can you call someone wifey after you’re actually married?) went to see The Killers in concert. It’s the first rock show I’ve ever been to, and after – I dunno – 15 years of going to almost nothing but hip hop shows and one Prince concert, I didn’t know what to expect.

First of all, I was surprised that the crowd did not look significantly different from the crowd at a Celtics game, except even fewer people of color. But I expected a bunch of tight-jeaned dudes with like dyed bangs; it was all dudes in cargo shorts who look like they probably throw their fists in the air and scream woooooooo! about twice a week. And then a bunch of uncomfortable middle-schooler/well-meaning parent duos.

Regardless, the buzz leaving the Garden was that the show was amazing. But to me it was just kinda alright. It felt far too overproduced for my tastes, it felt like I just watched “The Killers: Live in Concert” on TV, except the TV was 600 feet away, I had to periodically move from behind the person in front of me to see it, and it costed way too much goddamn money.

But I think rock shows must generally be like that. They just aren’t up there in terms of energy like hip hop shows are. And the truth is that my favorite thing about that band is their song-writing. They don’t do much vocally or instrumentally that I was really itching to see done live. In that sense, the Killers are a studio band through and through, but in a really good way.

All this to say that there’s a reason I’m not just doing a list of my favorite 10 Killers songs. (Another day perhaps.) What I’m doing below is a list of my ten favorite lines from Killers songs – because more than any radio rock band I can think of, their lyrics are complex and they matter. BTW, if you read the whole thing, you can find an imeem playlist at the bottom of this post.

So without further ado…

10. “Are we human or are we dancer?” from Human
What an awesome concept. I’m more than a little surprised that so many people – fans, bloggers, and journalists – didn’t understand it. Maybe we need to re-emphasize art in schools, because if a mildly abstract pop song lyric causes so much consternation, then something is wrong with the way we think about creativity in our society.

9. “I know that I can make it, as long as somebody takes me home – every now and then.” from Sam’s Town
This is one of many times that Brandon Flowers extends the line past the line cleverly. It sounds like the line will end “home,” which gives it a meaning on its own, that he needs help for some of the most basic tasks in life. But then by adding “every now and then” – it changes from having a designated driver to having someone he can get intimate with from time to time. From a call for friendship to a call for just wanting to be wanted at all.

8. “How do you know that you’re right if you’re not nervous anymore?” from Bling (Confessions of a King)
I don’t think this is one of my favorite songs by these guys, but that line is dope.

7. “We’re burning down the highway skyline on the back of a hurricane…” from When You Were Young
I admit I came to the Killers late. It wasn’t until I had friends over playing “Rock Band” on my 360. I had never even heard this song, but when Eugene got to this line I was super impressed. I mean the whole thing is really well written, but this line illustrates Flowers’s ability as a writer to incorporate abstract images to enhance concrete concepts.

6. “I ain’t in no hurry, you go run and tell your friends I’m losing touch.” from Losing Touch
This sounds like something a rapper would say. Go ahead and talk isht about me. It don’t stop me from being better than you. I love abject cockiness sometimes.

5. “My lips, they don’t kiss – they don’t kiss the way they used to…” from For Reasons Unknown
I believe the best genre of music for complex lyrics is hip hop. After that, classic soul and Motown. Pop rock falls somewhere toward the bottom of the list. But one thing even I believe guitar-driven music can do better than anything else is convey desperation. This is what I’m talking about.

It was weird at the aforementioned concert – the performance of this song was surprisingly lackadaisical, until toward the end they interrupted it with a nonsensical really dorky-sounding spoken word interlude, then when they launched back into the hook, it was so rockin!

4. “Don’t you want to feel my skin on your skin?” from Bones
The influences on this song sound like 80s new wave, 70s country & western, and 60s horn-based funk. It’s seamless – one of the best examples of how good they can be when they aren’t sloppy in their execution. (To witness their sloppy execution, check the second half of Day & Age.) Anyway this line is dope in its sincerity and simplicity.

3. “The decades disappear like sinking ships…” from A Dustland Fairytale
There’s so much embedded in this lyric, how people are imprisoned by time as it passes the same way they are on ships as they fall into the ocean. In context, this simile introduces the narrator’s hesitant religious conversion (from Catholic to Mormon I think?) – who would think that would be an interesting subject for a song? Wicked.

2. “I’m so much older than I can take.” from All These Things that I’ve Done
The assonance between “so” and “old” echoes the earlier line “You know, you know, no, you don’t, you don’t” – with the oh sound typically representing strong feeling in pop songs. Just extreme,y well-crafted lines with a lot of thought put toward internal rhyme and rhythm. It makes a listener feel good that the songwriter actually cared about how their work could be best received.

1. “The stars are blazing like rebel diamonds cut out of the sun…” from Read My Mind
This is my favorite Killers joint hands down. In fact, it’s not just this line, but every piece of this song contains that kind of wonder and amazement at what amounts to a normal everyday life. Lyrically, musically, vocally, they really bring it on this one.

Top 10 Favorite Lines from Killers Songs

Tags: music

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