The Killers – Hot Fuss | A Decade On

Credit: Album Cover

Time really is a funny thing; it just slips away and there’s nothing you can do about it. The most powerful thing is music – or any form of art for that matter – that has the ability to detest time and have an impact even years after its creation. Take The Killers‘ ‘Hot Fuss’ – how can I ever come to terms with the fact that this album turns ten years old this month? A decade and a lifetime ago, yet it still feels like yesterday. Nobody could have guessed at the time that this was to become one of the most promising debuts of the century.

Hailing from good ol’ Las Vegas, it was quite evident from the get-go that The Killers wished more than anything to be British (nice attempt at putting on a faux English accent though, Brandon). With clear influences of 80s Brit pop in their sound, it really was no surprise that many believed the band were indeed from the land of fish and chips, myself included. ‘Hot Fuss’ took the band out of their Nevada desert town and upgraded them to being stadium headliners across the globe.

Spending 179 weeks on the UK charts (let’s add that up… that totals to an impressive three and a half years!) and reaching multi-platinum in several countries, it’s safe to say that this album really launched the band and still remains an absolute legacy. As cliché as you may think it is, The Killers’ first single ‘Mr Brightside’ is a massive part of not only this album, but the band’s career. This will always be one of my all-time favourite tunes and deservedly so. Here’s a song that for some reason we can all sing along to. Sure, it helps how repetitive it is but that’s part of its appeal.

“I remember being in the studio, recording the demo but still writing the lyrics. I was procrastinating, and that’s why the second verse is the same as the first one, but it just stuck. What strikes me about it is how powerful that song still is, and the second verse is still as powerful as the first one, every night. There’s just something about it. It’s a moment,” front man and vocalist Brandon Flowers told NME. I remember reading that and finding so much sense in what Flowers said – I’m still as in love with this song as I was ten years ago and I imagine I would still be ten years from now. Timelessness.

Whenever this song comes on anywhere everybody’s singing along to it because let’s face it, if ‘Mr Brightside’ isn’t on your radar then you’ve most likely been living under a rock for the past decade. I think personally, I never realised just how old this song is until they released the video for ‘Miss Atomic Bomb’ last year. It’s meant as a companion piece to the band’s debut single. It serves as a prequel and sequel at the same time. It shows the way the story really unfolded, and not the way Mr Brightside saw it.

There is something so effortless about ‘Hot Fuss’ from the catchy dance-ability of the well-renowned singles (‘Mr Brightside’, ‘Somebody Told Me’, ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’) to the two parts of the so-called murder trilogy. Yes, in case you weren’t aware ‘Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine’ and ‘Midnight Show’, along with ‘Leave The Bourbon On The Shelf’ off ‘Sawdust’, make up a murder trilogy. Just a personal opinion, but it seems since the release of ‘Hot Fuss’ (and ‘Sam’s Town’, which let’s admit is also an absolute banger), The Killers have been trying a little too hard to outdo themselves and their sparkling debut. Let’s give it a rest guys and let this album shine in all its glory.  This is where I log off and spend the rest of my night listening to it. Happy 10 year anniversary ‘Hot Fuss’!