Sweep this mess up! (Sawdust - The Killers)

Member Name: SaveMeTheMoney

Product:	Sawdust - The Killers
Date:	03/06/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One new song, a few good covers

Disadvantages: too many mediocre songs

Sawdust was a bit of a strange album. It was released when the Killers fame seemed to be at it's most recent peak (2007), but was relatively unheralded and there was not much written or advertised about it. I came across one day while idly passing the day away on Amazon.

Sawdust is essentially a release of b-sides that did not make the cut to full album status, mixed in witha couple of live tracks and some covers - quite literally the 'sawdust' from the floor of the first two albums.

Sawdust represents some of the Killers strangest music yet. Spinning through Beach Boys-esque vocal harmonies ("The Ballad Of Michael Valentine"), straight up dark rock ("Tranquilize", the sole new song on this album, featuring Lou Reed), and menacing techno (highlight "All The Pretty Faces"), the album is actually really very good and shows something of an experimental and brave release by The Killers.

There are three covers on this album; "Shadowplay" (Joy Division), "Romeo and Juliet" (Dire Straits), and "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" (First Edition); all done decently. In fact Romeo and Juliet is done more than decently and takes me back to my childhood!

The songs here seem to have hit a middle-point between Hot Fuss' glammed up synth-pop and Sam's Town's arena rock pomposity, and it works. Lacking the overly clean production of the latter and the pretentious lyrics of the former, Sawdust, at its best, is full on synth-rock bliss.

However, as an album of b-sides is always likely to produce a few tracks that are not to everyone's taste and generally a bit disappointing, so too does Sawdust. Surprisingly the remis of the Killers' biggest hit to date, Mr Brightside, is the biggest let down. A dance version of this just does not work, it is the antithesis of what the Killers represent! Where the White Boys Dance and the re-recording of Sam's Town are also disappointing and you were just left thinking why did they do that?

You can pick this album up for less than £5 now and if you are a killers fan that does not yet own it, it is definitely worth having in your collection. It did seem a bit odd to release such an album so prematurely into the Killers' life and it may have been better served after 5 or 6 albums - but maybe there will be an altogether bigger and better Sawdust 2 in the future!

Summary: Not too bad, not too good