Proving that timing actually is every thing, The Killers’ multi-platinum debut album, Sizzling Fuss, match 2004 like a glove. Knee-deep in confidence, charisma, and triumphant, arena-friendly anthems, it chimed with the occasions throughout a outstanding yr for alt.rock. Guitars had been firmly again in vogue and bands with post-punk leanings reminiscent of Franz Ferdinand, The Futureheads, and Interpol discovered themselves within the thick of the motion.
Forming in 2001, the Las Vegas quartet had come up the laborious manner, gigging fiercely within the US and first gaining a world foothold when an early model of future hit “Mr. Brightside” premiered on Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 present in August 2003. Nevertheless, whereas the attendant buzz led to the band signing with Island and dealing on their debut album in Californian studios with producer Jeff Saltzman throughout that very same yr, a report that frontman Brandon Flowers had just lately fallen for made him rethink The Killers’ strategy.
“The only song that remained was ‘Mr. Brightside’”
“I remember us going into the Virgin Megastore to buy [The Strokes’] Is This It on the day it came out,” he recalled in a 2012 NME interview. “When we put it on in the car, that record just sounded so perfect. I got so depressed after that, we threw away everything, and the only song that made the cut and remained was ‘Mr. Brightside.’”
Historical past has, in fact, proved that The Killers had been completely proper to maintain maintain “Mr. Brightside,” their first official single and arguably nonetheless their signature hit. Remarkably, this vivid, cinematic rush of a track was solely the second tune The Killers wrote throughout early classes in drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr’s storage and guitarist Dave Keuning’s residence.
“Mr. Brightside”’s lyric (“It started out with a kiss/How did it end up like this?”) is all too simply identifiable for anybody who’s ever liked and misplaced. However then it got here from the center, as Flowers wrote the track after his ex-girlfriend cheated on him.
“All the emotions in the song are real,” he instructed NME shortly after Sizzling Fuss’ launch. “When I was writing the lyrics, my wounds from it were still fresh. I am Mr Brightside! But I think that’s the reason the song has persisted – because it’s real.”
“There was some magic captured”
Fixed touring in each the US and UK with artists as numerous as Morrissey and British Sea Energy ensured The Killers’ viewers had been already acquainted with “Mr Brightside” and the band’s second basic single, the suave, dancefloor-filling “Somebody Told Me,” by the point the group launched into their first headlining tour of the UK in Could 2004.
Launched simply weeks later, on June 7, 2004, Sizzling Fuss proved to be an aptly titled debut. “Mr. Brightside” and “Somebody Told Me” had already cracked Prime 10s on each side of the Atlantic, however they had been solely two of the quite a few stand-outs on a report that was merely stuffed wall-to-wall with classics.
The brooding New Order-esque “Smile Like You Mean It” and sweeping, choir-assisted ballad “All These Things I’ve Done” went on to finish the album’s quartet of hits, however Flowers and firm may simply as simply have serviced radio with songs such because the celebratory “On Top” or the barnstorming “Believe Me Natalie.” The depth of The Killers’ ambition was additionally revealed on fan favorites as numerous as “Midnight Show”’s gripping story of homicide most foul and the glacial, Radiohead-esque electronica of the enigmatic “Everything Will Be All Right.” Because the title of the album’s bonus observe acknowledged, Sizzling Fuss was certainly “Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll” and it was carried out with a heady panache which urged The Killers had been right here to remain.
The response to Sizzling Fuss
Critiques of the album discovered the media concurring, with Rolling Stone’s rave response (“This album is all Killers, no filler”) quickly setting the tone. Realizing they had been in on one thing massive, the band’s fanbase wanted little encouragement and their assist despatched Sizzling Fuss to No.7 within the US and No.1 within the UK en path to shifting over seven million copies worldwide and garnering a collection of Grammy and BRIT Award nominations.
The Killers have continued to craft legend-enshrining music throughout 4 additional albums, starting from 2006’s Sam’s City to 2017’s Great Great, and so they stay a formidable power to at the present time. Nevertheless, the band additionally acknowledge that Sizzling Fuss captured a particular second in time and perceive why the report nonetheless steadily ranks extremely in lists of basic debut albums.
“Everybody wishes they could go back and re-do things,” Brandon Flowers mirrored in an interview with The Impartial in 2016. “But I acknowledge there was some magic captured. If you ask me, The Strokes’ [debut] Is This It is better and Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction is better, but I do think we’re up there and I’m proud of it.”
Sizzling Fuss could be purchased right here.
