Is This Music...Or Is It Nonsense?

I remember the moment I discovered The Killers (not the movie, but the synth-driven post-punk band (I remember discovering the movie, too. That's another story)): I was deejaying a radio show with my good friend Doug Roberts and we slid in Hot Fuss, their first album, because we desperately needed something to play. It's odd, now, thinking that The Killers were ever small enough to be considered independent, but in the midwinter of 2004 they were just small enough.

I don't remember which track we played, but I remember being kind of blown away because I'd never heard a contemporary band use synthesizers in the same way as The Killers. Most other synthesizer bands brought the synthesizers to the forefront, making them a novelty. The Killers blended them, seamlessly integrating the synthesizers into their melodies and harmonies.

I kind of lost interest in when they released their second album. They had gotten too big and the concept of the second album was not something that I was particularly interested in, even if it was a spectacular album. I really wouldn't know because I haven't given it too much thought.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I saw my old friends The Killers on Saturday Night Live and they hooked me again. Something about the songs they're playing now interests me more than their last album. I am eager for the new album to drop in a couple of weeks.

I've been listening to the first single "Human" a lot for the past week. It's one of my favorite current songs. I even embedded one of the many youtube "music videos" at the end of this entry. Give it a listen. The synthesizers start off quite, like a faraway freight train, but it's full steam ahead toward the end.

The only thing that may bother you is one of the lyrics. I know it bothers me...a lot. In the chorus the lead singer asks whether we are humans or if we are dancer.


I'm not joking.

Are we human or are we dancer?

It's something out of the fever dreams of the love child of Frida Kahlo and James Joyce. I'm saying that it doesn't make any sense.

First of all, why "dancer" instead of "dancers"? Is dancer an ancient and unknown human archetype or some different state of being? Are not dancers human, too? If you tickle them, do they not giggle? If you refuse to dance with them at a party, do they not pout and call you an asshole? If you let them eat 3 of your onion rings, do they not disappear for 20 minutes only to come back flushed, eyes bloodshot? The point being: dancers are obviously human, so what is Brandon Flowers (lead singer and writer) smoking?


As it turns out: nothing. Flowers, a devout follower of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (that's a mouth full, so let's just call 'em Mormons from here out), allegedly lives the clean and sober life. So it must not be drugs.


The nonsensical lyrics isn't enough to make me hate the song. I've loved many nonsense-lyric bands, from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Bob Dylan (look all you Dylan supporters out there: I love him and I think he's brilliant, but sometimes his lyrics don't make a lick of sense), but I demand an explanation.

I DEMAND SATISFACTION!


Here's the song.