Just when a Noisettes cover had me convinced that maybe I had been a bit too tough in my vehement dislike of the Killers, there comes this abomination--a cover of Bright Eyes' pretty awful " Four Winds " by the Las Vegas foursome that tosses out the song's honky tonk affectations (probably rightly) and replaces them with shoddy synth-pop posing (like everything off Day & Age ).
The cover is ostensibly for the "Spaceman" EP (which is out on April 14) but is clearly here solely so Brandon Flowers can try to be taken as seriously as a songwriter by the music press (well, like Paste, Filter, and Rolling Stone, I guess) as Conor Oberst. That won't work, given that this song is pretty much the pits--there's no sense of drama, no sense of caring at all about the source material, and no sense that this cover is essential. Which, at least in my book, is required in when it comes to covers.[ Stereogum ]
How will he be taken seriously as a songwriter if it's a cover and someone else's lyrics? Was that supposed to be a joke? I don't even know man. Don't try to reevaluate your hate for the Killers because you're never going to be on their side- I can tell. Give in to the hate, revel in it, whatever.