These are the weeks that give D'luv the tingles in his whizz-wack; the weeks where a big sledgehammer of new releases comes along and busts things up on Billboard's Hot 100.
First up, T.I. replaces himself at #1 with "Live Your Life," a duet with Rihanna. Not only did the song set a record by jumping from #80 to #1—thanks to T.I.'s Paper Trail being released last week—but it also gives Rihanna her fifth U.S. #1, and T.I. his third.
Next up is Christina Aguilera, who achieves her seventh solo U.S. Top 10 hit with "Keeps Gettin' Better," which debuts at #7. I like the dancey direction you're returning to, Xtina. Don't fuck this next album up, now, doll.
Nickelback debut at #10 with with "Gotta Be Somebody." Looks like all the Z-grade, Bush supporting hicks who pick cigarette butts out of a dumpster and shove them up their asses are still multiplying, and their spawn have iTunes accounts. Hooray for white trash!
The Killers enter the chart at #32 with "Human," giving them their third U.S. Top 40 single after "Mr. Brightside" (#10, 2005) and "When You Were Young" (#14, 2006). The cover art for the band's upcoming Day & Age album was unveiled yesterday.
Oh, yeah...how could I forget David Cook's run-of-the-mill "Light On" debuting at #17? Sorry, superstar, but you're no David Archuleta.
Finally, since it's an Aguilera kind of week, let's revisit Christina's 2001 duet with Ricky Martin, the much underrated "Nobody Wants To Be Lonely":
That's right, Ricky—shake that ass, girl!
The U.S. Top 10:
1. "Live Your Life" - T.I. feat. Rihanna*1 week* *airplay gainer* 2."Whatever You Like" - T.I. 3. "So What" - Pink 4. "Disturbia" - Rihanna 5. "Let It Rock'" - Kevin Rudolf feat. Lil Wayne *sales gainer* 6. "Hot N Cold" - Katy Perry 7. "Keeps Gettin' Better'" - Christina Aguilera *new* 8. "Can't Believe It'" - T-Pain feat. Lil Wayne 9. "Paper Planes'" - M.I.A 10. "Gotta Be Somebody" - Nickelback *new*
The Killers unveiled the cover art for their third studio album Day & Age today. The LP is out November 25. (Ugh! So far away...)
The artist who designed the cover is Paul Normansell, and the below info is from his official site:
The foundation of my work originates from the relationship between Art and Music. I wanted to try and create a link between colour, shape and sound. My abstract paintings are based on colour studies exploring how colours can stimulate feelings, emotions within a person, and the different meanings each colour has, and its power to evoke a certain response from the viewer.
From experimenting with colour my paintings became more illusional. I tried to create the illusion of movement, stimulating the eye into seeing things which may or may not be there. This seems to be testament to the human inclination to see patterns in randomness like looking for shapes in clouds or finding images within magic-eye pictures. The more you study the image the more you find. Each painting is individual, painted in gloss paint onto aluminium or board, each dot of paint is painted freehand using a brush. I use gloss paint and aluminium because of there reflective qualities and find it helps to enhance the optical effect of my work.
Walking almost a mile back to my hotel room after losing 20 bucks on the penny slots in Vegas on Saturday—at the same casino Sheena Easton performs at nightly—I was looking forward to The Killers' performances on Saturday Night Live as a bit of a sobering pick-me-up.
But backtracking a bit, the band's "Human" was added to iTunes last week, and has faced some stiff competition from a slew of new releases: Christina Aguilera's "Keeps Gettin' Better," Nickelback's "Gotta Be Somebody" and David Cook's "Light On" to name a few—all of which have sold better, but are now dropping off while "Human" has steadily remained at #11 on iTunes throughout the week.
Anyway, back to SNL, there was Brandon Flowers, with his jacket adorned with what looked like quail feathers attached to his shoulder pads, doing his robotic jittering to "Human" and "Spaceman." Someone's still clearly in full-on Joy Division mode. And drummer Ronnie Vannucci is looking more and more like Ron Jeremy with each album.
But they were just alright. I think the big problem with this album might be that the songs are so overproduced and dancy that they might not really work well in a live setting. It's kind of like the anti-climax of seeing Britney or Steps perform live.
NBC doesn't have any clips of the Killers' performing on their SNL page, and the network is notoriously Nazi-like about removing clips of their shows from YouTube and other video sites.
But if you didn't watch the show, in my D'luvvly opinion, you weren't really missing much.
The Killers' lead single "Human" off Day & Age leaked and did the rounds more times yesterday than a three-dollar hooker on Good Friday. But if you're a blessed saint and haven't heard it yet, it's streaming on the band's official site (and will be available for paid download next week).
Brandon Flowers and Co. has traditionally unleashed some groovy, memorable first singles off their albums—"Somebody Told Me," "When You Were Young" and even "Tranquilize" off last year's Sawdust compilation.
So how does "Human" rank when stacked up against these others? I like the Stuart Price production, but while the Killers aren't drowned out by all the blips and bleeps, I'm not entirely sure it all gels well.
It might grow on me. So far it's a 7 out of 10. Am I nuts?
Brandon Flowers is looking younger and younger with each album, and the rest of the Killers morphing into my mom. Creepy.
Anyway, there's a really good interview in Rolling Stone—and on the mag's site—with Brandon that pretty much tells you everything you'd want to know about the new album.
1. Yes, it's officially called Day and Age. 2. Yes, it's out November 25. 3. Stuart Price is all over it. 4. There are two sax solos.
Here are some excerpts:
So, if Sam's Town is about Vegas, what is this one about? For me it's definitely a continuation. On this one I was thinking more universal. Like, when Morrissey was singing about Manchester, I thought, "I got it." [laughs].I don't know. Maybe I didn't. I feel like that's the duty, I guess. You're supposed to represent where you're from, and—I'm trying to figure out what that is— I don't know how to do it.I don't know.
****
So, and what is Stuart doing to it? He's just shining it up? Yeah, and he's—he's not afraid to put out ideas, and you know at first that was hard to get used to.But I mean some of them we kept, and you know, we almost treated him like a fifth member.
So, for instance, on "Human," what did he add to that?Obviously it has kind of a Euro-pop feel to it. The landscapes —that would be more Stuart.We'd do the meat and potatoes, and he adds the galaxy.
****
What's "Human" about? I think we were at a weird festival in Germany. I was just trying to have it be a simple tune, with classic chord changes. The way I described it to Stuart was -- I remember saying this to him at dinner --"I got this thing, it's like Johnny Cash meets the Pet Shop Boys. Let's go record it."
****
Right. So, what should we say about the other Killers stepping up on this record? I heard five songs and it's definitely the best shit you've ever done.
 Yeah I feel like it is. I think it was like that freedom that Stuart gives you to just--If you want to try something—to nobody was afraid to try it. We brought in a sax player. Tommy, he's our buddy. He's probably going to come on the road with us. And Ronnie brought in his buddy—this Cuban guy, that's a percussionist. We all just kind of said, you know, fuck it. You know, people laugh at sax solos. We just said, fuck it.

See, you put things out there and they come back to you like a boomerang. After doing this post on Brandon Flowers last week, a little birdie mailed over a copy of NME.That said, in the spirit of the Democratic National Convention taking place this week, D’luv’s new politically-tinged Towleroad column is up.Check it out and find out some things you may not have known about the Killers’ frontman.
Goddammit. Brandon Flowers is on the cover of the new NME. This is the type of thing I’ll struggle with for about a week when I pass it in the magazine aisle at the Borders down the street:”No, I’m not buying it. It’s $9.95 with a jacked-up import price. Well, it’ll be nice to have, maybe. That’s stupid, though, because you can probably find a scan of it online and just read it for free. But it’d be nice to have. Absolutely not.”In the end, I’ll buy not only this trash, but some other unecessary item to “ease the guilt” of spending that much on just one flimsy publication. Then I’ll bring it home and throw it onto a pile of other garbage I’ll never ever look at again, let alone actually read.Anyway, a few promising quotes from The Killers about their upcoming Stuart Price-produced third album, from the NME…
These are the weeks that give D'luv the tingles in his whizz-wack; the weeks where a big sledgehammer of new releases comes along and busts things up on Billboard's Hot 100.
Next up is Christina Aguilera, who achieves her seventh solo U.S. Top 10 hit with "Keeps Gettin' Better," which debuts at #7. I like the dancey direction you're returning to, Xtina. Don't fuck this next album up, now, doll.
The Killers enter the chart at #32 with "Human," giving them their third U.S. Top 40 single after "Mr. Brightside" (#10, 2005) and "When You Were Young" (#14, 2006). The cover art for the band's upcoming Day & Age album was unveiled yesterday.
