The Killers Give us an Album of Songs They Didn't Want Us To Want

Over the weekend the B-Side compilation from The Killers leaked to the internet, and here I am to tell you all about it.

The Killers are as polarizing a band as any these days. People either love the '80s revival sound and Springsteen worshipping grandeur, or are turned off by Brandon Flowers' perpetually off-key warble. It seems that the Las Vegas band could give a crap and are willing to put out both, as evidenced by this wandering, off-kilter compilation. The first two tracks are utter throwaways; "Tranquilize" sounds like a self-absorbed dream come true for Flowers, and the cover of Joy Division's "Shadowplay" offers no reason to keep listening. But that's probably the worst of it. Most of the compilation (I won't call this disc an album, as it has no cohesive anything, save for the people performing) isn't particularly bad, it's just forgettable. These tracks were left off the first two Killers albums for a reason, and are probably only being released now so the band can make a profit off what would otherwise be bootlegs traded amongst hardcore fans.

(Random digression: What does a hardcore Killers fan look like? Do they all grow out goatees? Can any of them sing? Can any of them figure out what these songs mean? I think if the Killers have any die-hard fans, they're all probably just people trapped in the '80s, thinking they just discovered some criminally underrated band from 20 years ago. I kinda wanna meet one of these people now.)

Despite the lackluster quality of the bulk of these songs, when Sawdust shines, it's a freakin' diamond. "Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf" is golden, a jewel that will probably end up as one of the most underrated Killers songs ever. But the finest moments come near the end of the album, with the oft-bootlegged "The Ballad of Michael Valentine" showing off some of Flower's best songwriting to date. The Abbey Road Version of "Sam's Town" is on par with the original, to the point that it almost deserved to be on the album. And in the last shining spot, The Killers nail a version of Dire Straits "Romeo and Juliet" to the wall, sounding perhaps even better than the original. The disc closes with the excessively long remix to "Mr. Brightside", a song that didn't need a 10-minute long remix to make it more annoying (don't get me wrong; I love the song, but by the time the original is over, I'm ready for something new. Ten minutes is overkill). Overall Sawdust is a textbook case of what you see is what you get; a bunch of second-rate songs by a band that's hit or miss already, with a few gems lost in the mediocrity.

Ruling on the Field: 6/10
Highlight Reel: Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf, Romeo and Juliet

==TJ==