There is a reason B-sides albums are usually mediocre. It is because the songs on the album were not good enough to make the cut in the first place. Occasionally, good songs get left off the final cuts of albums. More often than not, however, the songs that get left off are left off with good reason. The Killers’ new album, Sawdust, a collection of B-sides and rarities, is exactly what you would expect it to be—filled with a few good songs and a whole lot of tracks that would have been better served staying where they were last left, the garbage.
In addition to the general mediocrity of most of the songs on the album, the main problem is that, for most diehard Killers fans (who I assume the album is aimed at), there are probably only one or two songs they have not heard already. The only two brand new songs on the album are the aptly named “Tranquilize,” a somber collaboration with Lou Reed, and the single of the album, “Shadowplay,” a Joy Division cover. Not being much of a Joy Division fan myself, I cannot speak to its faithfulness to the original song. However, more than a few Joy Division fans have told me that the Killers effectively killed the joy (pun intended) of “Shadowplay.”
The best cuts on the album point back to the Killers’ earlier days, those tracks left off Hot Fuss. Songs like “Under the Gun” and “Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll” are undoubtedly great Killers songs. They bear the manic energy that is the signature of so many of their songs. However, these are songs that almost every fan has surely heard (they do not exactly keep these songs under lock and key). Eventually, this is the problem with the entire album. The better tracks are songs that most fans have already heard, while the ones that are new or unheard of are mediocre at best. In the end, it is probably better to just skip this recycled Killers adventure and wait and see what new genre Brandon Flowers & Co. decide to pay homage to next.
|