Wednesday, June 10, 2009

3S1P: Importante

1) "Verb" Silage
2) "This Woman's Work" Maxwell
3) "When You Were Young" The Killers

Oh man, oh man, oh man. I remember how much I loved this song when it came out. I felt like this album was going to be amazing and soaring and epic and take the Killers in a really cool new direction! This is such an interesting song for them, because it really is the Killers doing Coldplay. Meaning: soaring chorus with lyrics that mean next to nothing. I mean the song starts out singing about a girl desperate for a relationship and then next thing you know they're "Burning down the highway skyline on the back of a hurricane" Wowzers, that's quite the first date!

This song though, reminds me of how deceiving appearances can be, in people and music. You take this amazingly singable, fun single (that is still a blast to play on Rock Band by the way) and then you follow it up with a bunch of songs that are ridiculously self-important and trying so hard to be Bruce Springstein they can hardly stand it. I mean, at least with Coldplay you get some singable choruses. The rest of Sam's Town (the album that WYWY came off of) is a mess plain and simple. And I remember being so disappointed by that. I defended it. I tried to tell my friends that it was a testament to Americana, that there was hidden meaning, that the Killers were brave for making it. Reality: it was crap. And over time, over weeks and months, I began to listen to it less and less. Know the album is filed away in my collection doomed to collect dust with the Eve6 songs I have and the Third Eye Blind tracks. Bands that made one good song that makes you nostalgic every time you hear it and then make a bunch of forgettable junk.

It's one of the reasons why I have a tendency to not buy singles any more before I hear the whole album. That first impression may pack a punch, but it's the total package that truly makes a difference in the long run.

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