Coming out of their break and they’re doing just fine: The Killers released their new album, “Wonderful Wonderful” on Sept. 22 — the band’s first album in five years.
The band dropped the follow-up album to “Battle Born” and continues the band’s alt-rock and post-punk revival genre with their latest release. Using a mixture of slower ballads like “Some Kind of Love” and “Out of My Mind”, with bops like “The Man” and “Run For Cover,” the band successfully makes their return to music.
Most recognized for their classic hit, “Mr. Brightside,” The Killers made their name in the music scene after the release of “Hot Fuss” in 2004. The Las Vegans first came together in 2002 after frontman Brandon Flowers was let go from his synth-pop band, Blush Response. They were soon discovered by British label, Lizard King Records, who then helped sky-rocket the band’s fame both in the U.K. and across the Atlantic in the U.S. after the release of “Mr. Brightside” in 2003.
Reminiscent of rock icons like The Strokes and U2, The Killers use synth-pop and rock sound to create their new album, and is more similar to 2012’s “Battle Born" than it is to 2004’s “Hot Fuss.” The band, much like artists Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Taylor Swift and Maroon 5, has gradually turned their music from the pop-rock era of “Mr. Brightside” into the newest final product.
While The Killers have never failed to provide their listeners with classic jams in the past, one thing that causes “Wonderful Wonderful” to fall short is its repetitive nature. Yes, they do have many good songs, but for every good song, there is its duplicate.
After listening to the album, I truly thought that “Run For Cover” and “Tyson vs Douglas” were just one long song. On top of this, the album has few songs to begin with, with the list stopping at 10.
Though the album is short, and a few songs are similar sounding, Flowers has given to the music world more of what it wants — pop-rock dance tunes similar to the likes of San Cisco and Two Door Cinema Club.
Between the release of their last album and “Wonderful Wonderful,” frontman Flowers also released a solo album in 2015, which has similar sounds to The Killers and Bruce Springsteen. Funnily enough, Flowers has cited Springsteen as one of his favorite artists of all time and one of the biggest influencers in both his solo sound and The Killers’.
“Wonderful Wonderful” marks the end of a five-year gap without an album from The Killers, yet its content leaves something to be desired.
