The Killers - Wonderful Wonderful

Rating:

Big. Bold. Brash. Brilliant.

There’s a lot to be said for a killer (lolz, etc. - Ed) single. That’s the light that leads the way for The Killers on ‘Wonderful Wonderful’. Even months on from when ‘The Man’ first dropped, it still feels like the swaggering calling card of a band who understand that attitude is everything.

It’s that fire that burns under Brandon Flowers and co.’s latest full-length. An assertion that they want to do things differently - and that maybe there’s room for improvement on 2012’s ‘Battle Born’. After five years away, ‘Wonderful Wonderful’’s strutting, cocksure standout is everything The Killers should be in 2017. Big. Bold. Brash. Brilliant.

The obvious question deserves an obvious answer; no, there isn’t anything else to match ‘The Man’, or even to sit in the same wheelhouse. In fact, at times ‘Wonderful Wonderful’ seems to be content to coast on the momentum it provides. “Don’t give up on me,” proclaims one song, “I’m just in a rut.” It’s that fear of standing still which seems to drive The Killers now. On occasion, they try new things - never radical, but different all the same. The sparse beats and of the title track give way to a hook that feels like it’s about to head off into Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ before turning back round into a more brooding, dangerous-sounding affair, while ‘The Calling’ begins by quoting a bible verse. Weirdly, it sort of works without sounding too preachy.

It’s when The Killers embrace their true selves that they find their mojo, though. ‘Run For Cover’ storms out of the traps in a way only they can - a thundering, runaway truck blasting through the night, it’s proof if needed that, when playing to their strengths, The Killers only know how to do bangers. Stephen Ackroyd