My Top 25 Favorite Songs by The Killers

It’s a weird time.  It’s a band in decline, but one that knows it.  Heck, their bass player and lead guitar player are sitting this tour out.  They’ve filled the void with backup singers and an array of talented backup performers who have been on tour with them for years.  Either way, i’m going into this concert with the possibility in my head that this could be the last time.  Brandon Flowers has already released two solo albums, and so has their talented drummer Ronnie Vanucci.  This could be it, right?

So to celebrate the greatness of The Killers, i’ve decided to power rank their top 25 greatest songs.  I love the writer’s room.

This is a great song with a unique guitar part.  I’m not going to run from the fact that there is a little bit of anti-establishment in my bloodstream.  Would this song be higher if it weren’t so damn popular? The answer is probably yes. Deal with it Brightsiders, at least it still made the list.  It also loses points because Flowers admitted that the second verse is the same because they just couldn’t come up with a second verse.

The title track from their fourth LP, Battle Born is another song about fighting the good fight. Getting knocked down and getting up again. All that stuff.

I’m an indie rocker through and through. This song means a lot to me personally as I was the only one in a 30 mile radius growing up that even knew what indie rock was. While everyone else was listening to things without any thought, or were stuck on the same old lame Texas country music that was 5 years past its prime, I was actively trying to discover new indie rock music. I’ve decided to give you the live version, because is there anything more indie rock than Glastonbury?

-It’s my delicate opinion that no song covers topics like suicide or alien abduction in a more fun manner than this one.  At least I think it’s about suicide. It could be about an alien abduction.  It’s definitely probably one of the two? Or it could be about fame. Hell, I don’t know.

The Killers are chorus kings. They thrive on a powerful chorus. It has led to many of their highlights and lowlights as sometimes it seems a little too forced (see their most recent album).  In “My List”, there’s a quiet buildup, an eerie keys part, and a gigantic vocal chorus.  I love this song.

From the criminally underrated third LP, I’m pretty sure this song is about a prostitute. I love the bouncy bass, and just really enjoy the very patient style of this song.  It’s like, “Hey, we’re gonna get there, everybody just relax and come along for the ride.”  I’m giving it to you live here, so you can see an excellent front man playing to the audience. 2:50 is where we get things moving.

The first radio hit for the band, and I tell you what: a confusing one for many of the people in my small rural hometown of Olney, TX.  Really, if you listen closely everything is pretty clear, until you listen again and it becomes very unclear.  All I know is—it jams.

Another one that had radio success and it’s easy to understand why.  The chorus is made for radio. I like the part around 3:00 through 3:30 because to me this shows a really cool aspect of The Killers. Listen to the part when Flowers sings, “I don’t mind if you don’t mind, coz I don’t shine if you don’t shine”, and in the background you hear the backing vocals by the rest of the band who clearly aren’t known for having kick ass vocals. It’s big as this chorus seems, the recording of this song is really special to me because they stayed away from bullshit. They didn’t dress it up too much. It’s a great pop anthem, leave it alone.

The first time I heard this song was on the old television show “The OC”.  Yes, I watched it. That show had tons of indie rock influences and I always thought Rachel Bilson was super hot. I also related very much to Seth Cohen played by Adam Brody. Oh my God I’ve said too much. Just watch and listen because this video is incredible.

I always related to this song, and considering this album came out when I was a freshman in college, I always thought this song was about breaking out.  Leaving your hometown. Moving away and shining.  There’s angst in this song, but there’s also hope, which is a common theme for many songs by this band.

I’m gonna give it to you straight here. I’m a sucker for awesome horn parts.

A member of the famous murder trilogy, this song has an incredible bass part.  Never a single, but always a hit. Oh yeah, and Jenny was clearly murdered. More on that later.

My personal interpretation of this song is a person that is sick of society and just wants to disconnect and live alone by the river. I could be wrong.

Notice that Brandon plays bass on this song as they go with the double electric guitar technique. I also think this song is a great example of how strong Flowers’ voice is. Try singing this song out loud and you’ll be squeaking and cracking all over the place.

This song is just so damn pleasant. It doesn’t sound like a song The Killers would do and that’s part of the reason I respect it so much.  They got out of their comfort zone on that album and this is just another great example. Pretty clear this song is about being on the road, but I see it as a double apology. First to his family and second to his fans. Can’t make everyone happy.

I have no idea what this song is about, but I love it, and I love the sing along anthem style at the end. Higher and higher.  I felt it necessary to do this one live. Go to 5:00.

-This is the most Las Vegas style song ever. The bass and horns win me over every time. This is Vegas disco.

I’ll never forget when VH1 premiered this video a month or two ahead of Sam’s Town’s release. I was lonely in the dorm and mesmerized by how awesome I thought Sam’s Town was going to be. It was everything I hoped it would be, and I think this song really got the ball rolling.

My best friend growing up was named Andi.  She was the coolest.  Listened to great music and now is a drummer in a band. She’s always been a star and no matter what the lyrics are, I always made this song about her.

This song was about the death of his mother.  I listened to this song in my car the other day and I got that same creepy feeling that I got when I listened to David Bowie’s “Blackstar” album.  This is dark, this is honest, and quite frankly this is sad.  Most everyone has had someone close to them die, and there are tons of touching songs about death, but this one really takes the cake in terms of encapsulating all the feelings that you have from the death bed to the funeral.

  

I’m a lousy keyboard player. I used to drive music stores crazy though by going to keyboards and trying to create cool riffs. An example of a cool riff is the keyboard part in this song.  Flowers has admitted that he’s not a great keyboard player but man he really hit the jackpot on this one.  I think the line, “someone will drive her around, down the same streets that I did” is really great. To me this is about losing the one that you love and then regretting it, but the video makes it pretty obvious that this song is about aging and the passing of time.

Another member of the famous “Murder Trilogy”, Midnight Show is the groovy hard rocker.  This is the actual murder going down, and then running away from the scene afterwards. Pretty tense. “If you can keep a secret, I can keep a secret“.

-The best album ender I’ve ever heard. Very simple, but a proper closer to one of the greatest albums of the last 15 years.

We are defined by all these things that we’ve done.  Whenever you feel down, remember to feel proud about what you’ve accomplished as a person.  Sometimes that seems like an empty thing to do because most of us want more in life.  No matter what, always find a way to take time and reflect on what you’ve done and the decisions you’ve made. It’s probably never going to seem like enough, because quite honestly it’s never going to be enough, but when everything is lost, the battle is one, with all these things that we’ve done.

And if you don’t like the deep stuff, how awesome is it that this song features a simple power chord breakdown? Nobody does that anymore. Let’s party.