Top Five Tuesday :: The Killers
Watching today’s video of the day and thinking back on seeing The Killers live has got me in the mood for Brandon and the boys music so much so that it just made sense to have them be this week’s Top Five Tuesday. Las Vegas deserts, drive-in theaters and young lovers in my mind, here is my top five favorites of The Killers and my three-sentences of expressed love for each of the songs:
5. Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll
“In the clutch of talking every word for all the boys,
electric girl with worn down toys.
Making up, breaking up.
What do you care?
Oh, what do you care?”
This is a song that is just meant to be performed live, with a crowd scream-singing-a-long. It is also one of those songs that I love to play loudly in the car when I am feeling low and defeated, the soaring power of the song, and the way that it builds, always gifts me the sudden, all-encompassing rush of strength with a side shot of edge. It also reminds me of my teenage years spent with my best girlfriends, listening to album after album of our favorite bands, dying each other’s hair, and talking about wanting to form a band.
4. All These Things That I’ve Done
“Another head aches,
another heart breaks.
I’m so much older than I can take.”
I love singing-a-long to this song, as well as singing it myself, which is why it is one of my go-to karaoke songs. This is another song that almost demands to be done live, but that could be my overarching bias of loving this band live so very much. I once wrote a short story with a lead character whom this song played a very integral part in his character development, and inspiration.
3. A Dustland Fairytale
“Now Cinderella, don’t you go to sleep,
it’s such a bitter form of refuge.
Oh, don’t you know,
the kingdom’s under siege,
and everybody needs you.”
Reminiscent of so many ill-fated, Natalie Wood movies I love, as well as a few of my favorite books that tell the tale of destined for heartbreak kind of love. This also reminds me of my love of re-told fairy tales, and the post-modern twists I sometimes play with in my own imagination that I may sometime put to paper. It also hits on a more personal level, singing to a girl who often suffers from overwhelm and sleepless nights, a song for an insomniac.
2. Romeo & Juliet
“And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be,
all I do is keep the beat, the bad company.
And all I do is kiss you, through the bars of a rhyme.
Juliet, I’d do the stars with you any time.”
The Killers version of Dire Straits’ song, Romeo & Juliet, is one of my all-time favorite cover songs. The version above is the one I first heard, and fell madly in love with immediately when I caught it on The Abbey Road sessions TV series, and it is also responsible for conjuring up quite a crush on Brandon Flowers, for me. The song also reminds me of something an English Professor of mine once said, that you cannot get through an entire day without a Shakespeare reference.
1. Read My Mind
“Its funny how you just break down,
waitin’ on some sign.
I pull up to the front of your driveway,
With magic soakin’ my spine.”
This song gives me chills. It is one of those songs that hits me like a punch in the soul, and that spins around inside of me jangling up all my emotions. This song brings up past pains and struggles, and times when I have felt crushed and heartbroken, but still carried on.
