"Pressure Machine" is the 7th album by Las Vegas indie rockers The Killers. The Killers are arguably one of the biggest bands to come out of the 2000s. Their 3-album streak which came in the form of their debut "Hot Fuss", 2nd album "Sam's town" and third album, "Day and Age" propelled them into super stardom and meant they have been headlining festivals and doing their own stadium shows ever since. I was a big fan of theirs during this era and saw them 3 times. But to be honest since then their 4th-6th albums haven't really grabbed me. They have had some alright singles on each. But none near the standard of their early material.
But I still have to listen to their albums because you don't get this big without having the talent and the songs to back it up. "Pressure Machine" really came out of nowhere and was a bit unexpected. Their last album "Imploding the Mirage" only came out last year so instead of waiting about as the covid storm blew over The Killers went into the studio and got back to work. It's interesting to note that all the shows they had booked have been moved out to later this year and next are still known as the "Imploding the Mirage" tour rather than mentioning "Pressure Machine" too. But there may be a reason for that.
I've listened to this album quite a few times now and it is a disappointing. Opening the album with folk just speaking randomly is not a good start at all. There is not even any sort of backing track to it. Sometimes spoken word works really well for example the first track on Notes on a conditional form by The 1975 where Greta Thunberg does a speech. That was epic. But this quite frankly is a load of rubbish. And there is more of this conversational type of stuff at random times throughout the album.
No singles were released in the
run up to the album. It was just a case of there you go, all at once. I
can only think the reason for this is because it's not really a singles
album. There are no standout tracks on here or ones that will fit in to
their live sets. The songs are downbeat and often slow and in the case of
"Desperate Things", painfully slow. I think The Killers did go
for a different approach to this album which to be fair they should get kudos
for going out with their comfort zones and trying something different. But the
result here is a very bland album which for me goes down as one of their worst.
Overall, this is a disappointing
and forgettable album. I can see why they are still calling it the
"Imploding the Mirage" tour and I hope this is just a hiccup for The
Killers. They need to get back to what they do best and that is to make
feel good anthems that unite people and that they can sing in unison with
thousands of other people. People cannot do that with any of the songs
off "Pressure Machine".
No comments:
Post a Comment