Sawdust

Performer: The Killers (US)
Engineer: TJ Doherty; Corlene Byrd; Will Brierre; Andy Savours; Max Dingel; Dave Stedronsky; Graham Bonnett; Jeff Saltzman; Alan Moulder; Mark Gray; Stuart Price; Rupert Cobb
Producer: Jeff Saltzman; Alan Moulder; Stuart Price
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Lou Reed (vocals, guitar); Andy Savours (guitar); Ted Sablay (piano, synthesizer); Tamara Robinson (background vocals). Audio Mixers: Andy Savours; Graham Bonnett; Alan Moulder; Mark Needham; Stuart Price; Rupert Cobb. Recording information: Cornerstone Recording Studios, Los Angeles, CA; EMI Abbey Road Studios, London, England; Sears Sound, New York, NY; Studio At The Palms, Las Vegas, NV; The Hearse, Berkeley, CA. Photographers: Rich Cook; Tessa Angus; Robert Reynolds. The Killers emerged in 2004 with a more pop-friendly version of the post-punk revival sound of Franz Ferdinand, the Rapture, et al., and their combination of arena-sized guitar-pop, candy-colored dance-rock, and Robert Smithian vocals (de rigueur for their peer group) made them stars. Three albums down the line, they prove to be more than a flash in the pan on SAWDUST. Something of a grab-bag, the album contains their cover of Joy Division's "Shadowplay" (used in the biopic CONTROL), as well as a tune from the Spider Man 3 soundtrack ("Move Away"). They also pay tribute to less obvious influences with straightforward, unironic covers of Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet" and Kenny Rogers's "Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town." The Killers commune with their elders in a more visceral--albeit equally unexpected--way at the start of SAWDUST on "Tranquilize," where they're joined by none other than Lou Reed.

Rolling Stone (p.84) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's hard to deny Brandon Flowers' melodic gifts, which fuel catchy uptempos like 'Under the Gun' and 'Where the White Boys Dance'..." Entertainment Weekly (p.131) - "Brandon Flowers shines...on both the deranged 'Tranquilize' and the haunting 'Sweet Talk'....Gratifyingly great." -- Grade: B Uncut (p.91) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "SAWDUST...might just be their defining document....The brooding 'Tranquilize' drafts in Lou Reed and displays an untapped understatement that could yet be the making of them." Q (Magazine) (p.118) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "'Tranquilize' has a sinister ambience and a pronounced art-rock sensibility."

Though a batch of 1980s-New Wave-inspired bands started making noise in the early 2000s, it wasn't until the Killers' 2004 debut album HOT FUSS (and its crossover hits "Somebody Told Me" and "Mr. Brightside") that the style really broke through to the mainstream. Heavily indebted to the likes of the Smiths, Psychedelic Furs, et al, the Las Vegas, NV quartet brought a contemporary sense of urgency to their retro-loving dance-rock sound and taught a new generation of kids that it doesn't have to be disco to be dance music. For follow-up SAM'S TOWN, the group obviously feasted on a gorge of Bruce Springsteen style rock, and while the sound boasted a slightly harder edge, the group retained the critics' and fans' adoration.

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