For this latest Day & Age video, the Killers enlisted the directorial expertise of Anthony Mandler. He clearly gets “concept” (see: he did like all of Rihanna’s most recent videos) which is good because from the first time you heard Brandon sing “blue jean serenade” to the time he brought a whole orchestra to Letterman, odds were this video was gonna be pretty conceptual. The Killers stay out of the way mostly, inserted interstitially into a dramatic narrative of an elder guy in the American heartland, thinking back on his American greaser past, his American drag races, his American Cinderella in a party dress. You know, classic All-American stuff. There’s more story than running time for the song, so the music’s bookended by some additional plot and acting. This video represents all at once the loss of innocence, the loss of the American dream, and the loss of Brandon’s heretofore terrible taste in jackets. Moving!
Day & Age is out.
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the first time i heard this song the whole time i was thinking how bad the lyrics were
this video did not change that.
How can a video change the lyrics you dog.
for what it is, it isn’t that bad.
OK. Stupid question time: is Stereogum based out of the UK?
The reason I’m asking is because if it’s not, everyone knows that the heartland is synonymous with America and the “American” descriptors were unnecessary and to be honest, sounds just a bit bitter, as if the words ‘America/American’ were used in a derogatory fashion.
I’m just asking…
…and then wait for the patriot
WHAT A STUPID THING TO COMMENT ABOUT ! LIKE YOU REALLY CARE! I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO SAY! THAT I AM STUPIDER FOR COMMENTING ON YOUR COMMENT! BUT I WILL COMMENT ON YOUR COMMENT IF I LIKE TO BECAUSW TRHAT IS HOW I ROLE AND NOW I AM GOING TO MAKE SOME LOUFD NOUISES OVER THERE IN THE KVCDOGDKL:SFGVSDSMLOPDVMLPSDF}MVSMLPDVMLSDOVOPMdv@
i love you
The song was apparently written about his parents. That should knock it down at least a point or 2 on the cheesiness scale.
We’re gonna do it for Johnny!
Stay gold Ponyboy…
Ohhh she cheated on him with the other guy. I get it. Jesus, finally a video by these guys that makes some sense. The look of it is really nice too.
oh ok! spoil the ending!
Man, just when I thought Day & Age proved they weren’t trying to be The Great American Band…
just slick chrome american princes.
This song is about his parents and also how his mother has brain cancer. So were a few other songs on the album. In all fairness, I don’t expect great lyrics from the Killers. I expect this. For what it is, it is pretty good and fun to listen to. Also, his mom being sick gives it another, unexpected layer.
brandon flowers is consistently sharp. at least it’s consistent i guess. i’m just surprised he doesn’t get auto-tuned like 99% of radio acts.
It’s true he’s always sharp but I think he just has a great sense of style. AutoTune WILL NEVER be able to stop that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wah. pretty sure nickels is talking about voice. I think.
But Jay-Z just proclaimed the “death of autotune” yesterday…
Every major act auto-tunes their vocals somewhat. He is not an exception, to be sure.
Dear Brandon Flowers,
PLEASE TAKE YOUR SHIRT OFF ALREADY.
rgds,
Mouthwhore.
Right??? Fucking tease is wearing too many clothes all the time. Like, I didn’t mind it when he was fat and had a pornstache, but now that he’s stopped eating carbs he needs to step it up.
ew??
Well, it looks like their heartland is in Europe…seems as though they’re testing their European fans to see who their top fan is! How ridiculous is this contest? http://www.spinearth.tv/feature/KillersEurope
i like that song and i understand that it is cheesy and so is the video but i do not agree that Brandon has given up on awful jackets. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think a cheap looking black jean jacket is that tasteful.
What…no feathers? Pfft.
This video really has that mellenfeeling down solid.
I couldn’t stand this song at first, now i really like it a lot, the video was decent too, exactly what i expected really.
song is a grower, really start to appreciate it after a few more listens. At first i also thought Brandon was just doing his Springsteen-lite thing again, but actually the song is a tremendous tribute to his mother who was dying of cancer. References his father’s alcoholism and how he conquered his problem (“She says she always knew he’d come around”). The end will break your heart as Brandon sings out to his dying mother “Now Cinderella, don’t you go to sleep
It’s such a bitter form of refuge
Oh don’t you know, the kingdom’s under siege
And everybody needs you”
Thanks Stereogum for giving the song a chance! GREAT STUFF!
Brilliant!
I love this song so very very much, for many of the reasons Keith Thomas mentions above, but this video is just pure suck. I really think the Killers are amazing, but their videos are consistently unwatchable. I’ll take a you-tubed live performance anyday over this nonsensical “concept” video with cheesy acting that doesn’t even have anything to do with the sweetly touching lyrics.
The last half of the song is pretty epic…in a Journey kind of way. This and ‘Spaceman’ are the only songs on Day & Age that I can even tolerate.
This is new and different.
I was actually thinking about this the other day, how even though the Killers are mainstream, they still keep it “weird” enough to be tolerable, and that’s why I like em. What other artist nowadays sings so earnestly about the good old 1950′s?
Stay gold, B-Flow.
Sal Paradise was right.
They have such a sad time together
boys and girls in America..
This is an amazing video…it’s very moving. And the song itself is one of my favorite songs. The Killers did a really great job!
Paula Abdul did a better job of ripp– er, “referencing” Rebel Without a Cause in her classic “Rush, Rush” video.
They really need to get back to doing gay disco. I mean, I probably wouldn’t have noticed how shittastic these lyrics are had it not been for the fact that Brandon sounds like Steve Urkel trying to do Night Ranger karaoke.
But I hate to be completely negative. The video itself was pretty and compelling. I appreciate the sexual tension between the Jet and the Shark — I mean, the Greaser and the Soc — I mean, the twin idealized representations of Brandon Flowers’ repressed homosexual psyche. And also, Brandon is a pretty little man. He wears too many clothes, but whatever.
I think everything after their first album “Hot Fuss” misses the freshness and the hooks of that album. Their video’s sure become more interesting. This one is not too bad I guess. What happened to his feathers jacket?
Sooo does anyone else think that the old-man-looking-back part would have been perfect for David Carradine?
Autoerotic asphyxiation is All-American.
Was Brandon even alive in 61?
Oh nvm. Just read that its about his parents. I’ll down vote myself. Sorry.
Maybe I’m biased because I’m a fan of the Killers music, but I thought this video was pretty cool. It told a compelling story and was fun to watch…
Performing the song live on Letterman, way better then the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNFs9bkD9jQ
EMOTIONAL
Loss of innocence,lossof american dream ….they are really killers…
Others should be reading this post.
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It is about a woman dying, and she has been in love with the same ‘slick chrome american prince’ since the day they parted ways in ’61 I’m ****uming to go to Vietnam War. And he never came back but she always waited for him. Now she is dying and going to meet him.
joyce
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