The Killers - "Imploding The Mirage" (2020)

The Killers were one of my favourite bands as a teenager, and although it's only their first two records that are truly great, every record they've brought out since then has been at least decent, since the band have settled into their style of heartland rock meets new wave and do it pretty well. I know what I'm getting with a Killers record, and I know I'll enjoy it in the moment, even if it doesn't stick with me over time.

That being said, I enjoyed the group's last release, 2017's Wonderful Wonderful, slightly more than Day & Age and Battle Born due to the sense of subtlety and insecurity it had (perhaps due to tensions within the band preventing them from recording a record for 5 years). Killers records are usually bombastically optimistic and earnest, but WW had a real vulnerability and unease to it. Imploding The Mirage is the exact opposite. This is easily the most bombastic and stadium sized record the band has released so far, and it is kind of it's undoing. Almost every track here turns it up to 11, as if every song is trying to be the album's climax, which ultimately is to the detriment of the songs here, as most of them are pretty good.

Lead single, Caution, is the best of the bunch. A typical Killers lead single, sounding absolutely massive with a rip roaring, anthemic chorus, wailing guitars and synths and a kick ass guitar solo courtesy of Fleetwood Mac's Lindsay Buckingham. "I'm throwing caution..." Brandon Flowers wails in the Springsteen-esque chorus and it captures that sense of catharsis and sheer overwhelming emotion that all the best Killers songs do. The thing is, it is the 4th track on the record, with the two similarly Springsteen inspired and massive singles My Own Souls Warning and Dying Breed before it. When I heard them for the first time in isolation, despite them being pretty good songs, they felt like just not quite as good versions of Caution. On the record however, because they come first, by the time I get to Caution I enjoy it less, as I have already been bombarded by these tracks without any respite in a more subtle moment. As a track, My Own Souls Warning has grown on me quite a lot. It's the kind of opener that really pumps you up with soaring melodic synths and jangly guitars, and Flower's slightly wobbly vocal inflections on the song give it a really endearing nature. It's a real feel good song. Dying Breed is built on drum samples from krautrock legends Can and NEU!, which give the song a unique sound in the first half, but are overwhelmed by the more standard Killers instrumentation as soon as the live drums kick in and you can barely hear that original rhythm. The track does have one of the best choruses on the record though, so it's an odd mixed bag of a track.

The album only really comes close to having a subtle moment to regain itself in two places, in the tracks Blowback and Fire In Bone. I really like the gentler instrumentation on Blowback, but the hook is one of the weakest on the record and it really kills my enjoyment of the song. Brandon really sang "She's breathing in the blowback" and expects it to be a singalong chorus?... Fire In Bone, on the other hand, I really like. It's a funky, Talking Head's inspired track that stays reserved and lets you enjoy it's groove and quirky lyrics. It does climax towards the end of the song, but unlike most the tracks here it doesn't explode into the first chorus, setting it apart from the others.

A couple of the later deep cuts, Running Towards A Place and My God, also impressed me quite a bit. Running Towards A Place channels a very pop-era Fleetwood Mac energy with a silky smooth bass-line that's a lot less pummelling and intense than the ones on the singles, but still builds up the layers as the track progresses to a big climax that feels very earned. All the little guitar and synth licks are placed just in the right moments to give the track a lot of character. My God has a really catchy chorus that embedded itself into my brain on first listen. Flowers and guest Weyes Blood sing it in this kind of blocky flow that puts emphasis on every other word in each line. It's pretty memorable. The drums on this track are thunderous, just pummelling along with the melody. Weyes take the lead on the bridge where the track shifts to a Madonna sounding synth pop sound, and while it sounds completely different to the rest of the song, it works.

With every track trying to be the most epic on the album, some do lose out. Lightning Fields is quite forgettable, being super reverby with a long meandering chorus that doesn't really have much of a hook to it, yet Brandon is still singing is heart out trying to make it sound important. When The Dreams Run Dry is the only serious dip in quality on the record, as it has this kitchen sink mentality which makes it feel like one of those tacky novelty 80s new wave songs that would smash other genres into the typical synth pop format just for the sake of it. The track has kind of a reggae beat and tropical synths, and Flowers even does a stereotypical 'reggae' vocals for the second verse. The chorus is also so blown out and too loud, and the whole tropical angle is dropped in the second half, which means the track doesn't really end up anywhere interesting, it just sounds a bit cheesy and tacky.

Imploding The Mirage is the kind of record that is pretty decent, but could've been a lot better if the band didn't insist on turning it up to 11 on every single song. It really needs a couple more genuinely reserved songs for it to feel like a complete album. That being said, if most of these songs came up on shuffle, I wouldn't skip them; which shows that the album's issues aren't to do with the writing, more the structure. It is a bit disappointing, since Wonderful Wonderful seemed like the band was on the right track, although this album is still isn't the group's weakest (Battle Born has it beat for that). Yeah it's Killers album, so if you know what to expect from the band, you'll get at least something from it.

Top Tracks: My Own Souls Warning, Dying Breed, Caution, Fire In Bone, Running Towards A Place, My God

6/10

Glass Animals - "Dreamland" (2020)

Glass Animals first two albums were pretty different, but equally great records that mixed up a lot of different sounds and styles including art pop, psychedelia, R&B and indietronica. However since the release of How To Be A Human Being in 2016, the band's drummer Joe Seaward was involved in a serious cycling accident and suffered brain damage, causing the band to go on hiatus while he recovered. Thankfully he has made a full recovery, and the whole experience left frontman Dave Bayley wanting to create a more personal album for their next release, as opposed to the eccentric character studies of HTBAHB.

This shift in lyrical content has also been accompanied by a shift in sound as well. The R&B elements of their sound take the centre stage here, with the psychedelic and art pop tendencies nowhere to be found. These R&B influences have been augmented with more than a handful of trap beats and a general washed-out, hazy dream pop atmosphere. I understand that this an attempt to match the dreamy nostalgia of the lyrical content, and that the more eccentric elements of the band's sound in the past would not have fit. However the album doesn't really sound dreamy, it sounds flat and sedated. This is part due to how slickly produced it is, but mostly due to the generic and predictable songwriting on both fronts - lyrically and musically.

Nearly every beat and groove on this record feels like I've heard it before in some generic pop tune on the radio in the past two or three years. It's the same thing with the hooks, melodies and chord progressions. It's almost as if the band was aiming for that market of boring, meaningless, 'vibey' pop songs that leave no impact and say nothing. The title track opens up the record with the most generic of Ibiza styled piano riff's before Bayley comes in with the most repetitive of vocal melodies, all filtered through so much reverb and echo it just sounds like slush. That's literally all the song does for three and a half minutes. The following track, Tangerine, sounds like Bayley heard Childish Gambino's Feels Like Summer, tried to make it, and ended up making something that sounds enough like it for it to be noticeable, but with a melody and groove so repetitive it fails miserably at recreating that euphoric summery vibe. It's All So Incredibly Loud is a linear track that is supposed to build and build throughout until the climax at the end of the song. However, the chord progression and synth crescendo at the of the song sound like any summer club track you'd here over the past 4 or 5 years; even if the percussion rhythm at the base of the track is decent.

Lyrically the album just doesn't work either. It's supposed to be about Bayley's experiences growing up - so it's a coming of age story. But it isn't; it's just a bunch of references to things from the late 90s / early 2000s (Space Ghost Coast To Coast is basically just a list of early 00s video games), and generic 'vibey' party songs about partying and sex and booze. There's no story here, no arc. Bayley is telling us nothing about himself, and filling in the gaps with his usual references to fruit and other random things. This fractured, whacky lyrical style worked on HTBAHB when he was turning it up to 11 and creating these incredibly eccentric character studies. On Dreamland, it seems like he doesn't want to turn himself into a caricature like this, but toning down the eccentricity just makes obvious Bayley's lyrical shortcomings.

While the majority of the record, while incredibly dull and boring, is inoffensively bland; there are a handful of real stinkers in here. Tokyo Drifting features Bayley's absolutely terrible attempt at trap rapping, and his vocals are filtered with so many effects that it genuinely sounds horrible. Luckily he hands the reigns over to Denzel Curry half way through, and Denzel being an incredibly talented rapper almost saves the track (but not quite). Melon And The Coconut personifies a fracturing relationship as these two fruit talking to each other, and it as stupid as it sounds. Bayley's vocals are filtered through the worst auto-tune imaginable, and there's a bluesy guitar part in the track that feels like its been put through the same awful effects. Waterfalls Coming Out Your Mouth obsession with sex really rubs the wrong way, I think due to it trying so hard to come across dirty and edgy while still attempting to be random and quirky. There's a lyric about gummy bears in this track, and gummy bears are not sexy, and trying to make them sound it comes across really weird and creepy. The track is also awfully mixed. Every part of the song is either too loud or too quiet at various points, but the dynamic is constantly shifting and it sounds terrible.

There are a couple of tracks that do feel fairly decent, although they would easily be some of the weakest tracks if they appeared on the group's first two records. Hot Sugar is built on the same jazzy sample as Loyle Carner's You Don't Know from last year, and it gives the song more of a sense of genuine coolness and actual life to it, and the vocal melody isn't too bad either. However if I think about the track too much, all I can think of is that if I like the song because of the sample and You Don't Know uses the sample better, why aren't I listing to that instead? Your Love (Deja Vu) is easily the best track here. The beat and bass groove on the track give it the greatest sense of urgency and momentum of any of the songs, and Bayley's vocals sound sensual and impactful. And the melody is actually catchy and not repetitive.

This record is one of those ones that feels so much longer than it is, by virtue of it being so repetitive and boring. I could not tell any of tracks from the last leg of the record apart from each other, because they all sound the same, and all sound so weak and unmemorable. Furthermore, there are enough stinkers on here for me to not ever want to come back to it. I find it so perplexing that the band threw out everything that made their first two records really interesting and fun, and replaced it with a sound that is already done to death, that they aren't even doing to a degree of any quality. This is not a good album and I'm really disappointed by it.

Top Track: Your Love (Deja Vu)

3/10

Pink Floyd - "Dark Side of the Moon" (1973)

So last summer I started listening to Pink Floyd's discography properly, however I ended up only listening to the band's first two albums, and only ended up writing about the first. However a documentary I watched on concept records which featured The Dark Side of the Moon pretty prominently, and its (obvious) inclusion on my '100 Albums to listen to' poster has spurred me on into listening to the groups 8th studio record, regardless of my original intentions of listening along chronologically. I'm glad I did, because Dark Side is a fantastic album, and it is so obvious why it was such a game changing album when it released, and the influence it has had on some of my favourite artists and records is blatant.

Compared to the band's earlier releases, Dark Side is so much more accessible, musically and lyrically. None of the tracks here take the weird left field turns that the first few records do, and all follow the consistent theme of modern human life - from birth to death, and all the trials and tribulations people face along the way. Every track on the record transitions smoothly into the next song, aside from The Great Gig in the Sky and Money, being at the end of side 1 and the beginning of side 2 on the original vinyl format of the record. This lends the record an incredible flow, particularly in the first half, where the entire side feels like one long, multi-part song.

Part of why the first half of the record flows so well is that it follows a clear linear narrative. The intro, Speak to Me, is essentially the moment of birth; which leads into Breathe (in the Air), with lyrics that read like a parent setting up their child for adulthood. On the Run is a tense instrumental piece which reflects the frantic nature of adult life, before Time slows the album back down with lyrics dealing with all the dull, mind-numbing tasks you have to do to exist in society as an adult that you can't run away from. The half climaxes with soul inspired The Great Gig in the Sky, which represents death and ascending to some sort of afterlife.

Breathe is the first proper song on the record, and it sounds beyond phenomenal. The woozy, psychedelic guitar tones on the track sound so dreamlike and enveloping. The same sound and atmosphere runs through Radiohead's OK Computer, and listening to Dark Side, I can see how it Directly influenced Radiohead when making that album. Time opens with a disorienting barrage of sampled clocks ticking, chiming and alarms before settling into the same hazy atmosphere as Breathe (there's even a reprise of Breathe at the end of the track). The track slowly builds towards the introduction of vocals which build up the momentum in the song. David Gilmour sings "Ticking away the moments that make up the dull day" as the opening line and it sums up the mood of the songs perfectly; the unavoidable banality that soaks up all of your time for your whole life. The Great Gig in the Sky features no lyrics, just the emotional, soulful wails from singer Clare Torry. The track feels triumphant and ethereal, which is quite a positive spin for a track literally about dying.

The second half of the record follows less of a linear narrative, with subject matters that are more broad and grand than the experiences of just one person. Money opens the side with the iconic sounds of cash registers cashing and clicking. These layer up and morph into a mechanical drum beat as Rodger Water's bluesy bass riff combines and drives the song along. It's easily the most direct song on the record, with Gilmour's vocals howling about how money and greed drives all of society's ills. The guitar solo towards the end of the song just roars and wails. Us and Them, by contrast, is so dreamlike and foggy. A jazzy saxophone and echo-y vocal effects make you feel like you're walking around in the clouds. The nearly 8 minute song is also lyrically quite foggy and more abstract. The track revolves around the ideas of conflict and division, at the scales of interpersonal relationships, society, and at the global scale of wars between nations.

The last three tracks are a lot shorter, and flow together like a medley. Any Colour You Like is another instrumental, and features the return of the woozy guitars from Breathe and Time and represents the illusion of choice in society (the title is a reference to the Ford Model T, which only came in black to aid in mass production). Brain Damage, inspired by former member Syd Barett's drug abuse and resulting mental health issues, is about how the stresses and strains of life can be too much for some people and cause them to loose their minds. The track has a different atmosphere than the rest of the album, feeling more fairytale like reflecting the separation from reality that Syd and so many others appeared to feel. Eclipse is quite an anthemic closer, with very simple lyrics repeating "All that you... see/touch/feel/ect". It brings together all of the topics of the past 9 tracks under the final statement that 'this is life'. All of the good, all of the bad; and you can't avoid any of it.

Musically, this album is phenomenal, and sounds just as enveloping and rich as any album today. It doesn't sound like it has aged one bit. However, lyrically the record goes for a generalist approach which I find slightly stops me being completely absorbed by it. None of the tracks feel particularly personal, being sung in the second person and talking about very universal experiences. Take Brain Damage for example; the track is inspired by Syd Barett's declining mental state, but it's not about it specifically, it's about losing your mind just generally. This isn't a criticism really, just more personal preference.

The Dark Side of the Moon is a fantastic album still to this day, and it is blatant how game-changing it was when it was first released. It's so much more accessible than the band's earlier work, yet remains so inventive and incredibly well written and performed. It is such a complete experience back to front, and at only 43 mins it is really replay-able for how grandiose it is.

Top Tracks: Breathe (In the Air), On the Run, Time, The Great Gig in the Sky, Money, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage, Eclipse

9/10