Or “The Bravery single”. This was the dread revelation that came upon me after buying Now 60, as headphone listening transformed “half-memorable blur on the office radio” into “sharp well-produced pop single”. Web opinion seems to link this lot to the Killers, in a “second-rate” kind of connection. I think this one song is much better than the Killers for the following reasons.
– actually sounds like Duran Duran (i.e. has a kind of pop-funk bassline you could imagine DD using)
– good motorik indiedisco beat
– better use of keyboards to colour same
– does not include the words “I got sold but I’m not a soldier” (yes, I know, this is the 20th time I’ve complained about that on NYLPM but honestly…)
– actual chorus line is plain-speaking aphoristic angst rather than the overly wordy choruses of something like “Somebody Told Me” or “Mr Brightside”
– best Strokes single since “Hard To Explain”
– the whiff of the generic hardly harms them: this song is the sound of new-new-wave (or whatever) worked into a viable and expertly applied pop formula.
Crap singing but you can’t have everything. I will probably hate anything else they put out.