Oh, and I don't change anything on Imploding The Mirage either. That album is perfect as is, and the sole b-side sounds exactly like what it is.
I was meaning the last three on the album (My God, When the Dreams Run Dry, Imploding the Mirage). Really like all three and, like you said, they’re usually better at opening than closing albums.
Yeah - there’s great stuff on WW, but the songs that don’t fit the theme as much stick out like a sore thumb to me (Have All the Songs, Tyson v Douglas, Out of My Mind..)
Agreed - it really helps with Day & Age where I can boot off the last couple of tracks (otherwise I think it’s ridiculously strong) and add any number of Tidal Wave, Four Winds, A Crippling Blow, Forget About What I Said. With that in mind, for me: 1. Sam’s Town 2. The Desired Effect 3. Day & Age 4. Imploding the Mirage 5. Hot Fuss 6. Wonderful Wonderful 7. Battle Born 8. Flamingo
I had no idea WW was so unpopular. It's not my favorite release, but Run for Cover might be my favorite Killer's single, and I think the album as a whole is much stronger than Day & Age.
I'd probably put (including the solo records) 1: Battle Born 2: The Desired Effect 3: Imploding the Mirage 4: Sam's Town 5: Hot Fuss 6: Wonderful Wonderful 7: Flamingo 8: Day & Age
Imploding feels like a culmination of everything they did right on their previous records + some cool new stuff. It would probably be my favorite, but nostalgia wins out for me with this band. Battle Born was my first Killers record, and Desired Effect has some good memories attached to it.
ITM BB D&A ST HF WW The Killers are a band that I’ve always felt gets better as they go along and even the records at the bottom I would still give an “A”. I missed a lot of the discourse surrounding Day and Age (I didn’t listen to it until after BB) and love that record. There’s definitely songs I think are better on the first couple records, but as a whole I really enjoy it. WW isn’t a miss per se, but it does feel like it’s missing something from previous records and a lot of what they tried different they do better on ITM.
Been a while since I've listened to some of these albums in full, but off the top of my head I'd go: Sam's Town Hot Fuss Imploding the Mirage Wonderful Wonderful Day & Age Battle Born
This may be sacrilege, but I truly feel that if you swap out some of the songs on the second half of Sam's Town with the b-sides from that recording session, including a non-demo version of Peace of Mind that I'm not even sure exists, then you have an album that lives up to what Brandon was saying about the album at the time of it's release. Easily. No question.
I do love Run For Cover and I think it probably is stronger as a whole than Day (I think the first two tracks of WW are awful but the rest is fine) but Dustland alone keeps it out of last lol