Reddit’s largest community for alternative, experimental, independent, and underground music.
Sort by:
Best
Open comment sort options
Best
Top
New
Controversial
Old
Q&A
What year is this?
The brits cant get past the year 2004.
It's when we were last happy
It was sort of the last great year for alternative rock imo. Off the top of my head the Killers, franz Ferdinand, and interpol all released classic albums. I know there are others but it definitely felt like we were in a good era listening to alt radio back then, before indie fully took over.
The Libertines
Agreed, it was the last hurrah of guitar based bands in the mainstream culture
Bloc Party
Silent Alarm a year later as well
I wish people in the U.S loved Interpol as much as the rest of the world.
What is the difference between indie and alternative rock? Aren't both just vague terms for rock bands signed to certain labels like Sub Pop?
And Kasabians self titled!
The sun never sets on the BritPop empire……
I know a lot of Britpop was a bit crap but it was fun.
I'm know I'm old now because the 90s nostalgia increases every year.
I swear Harambe's death messed up our space time continuum.
Honestly I do have some friends who's entire music taste is 2001 - 2009
That’s taste
Usually coupled with "It's incredibly rare these days to get an album where every single song is good". (That was an actual comment that came with a knowing emphasis on the "incredibly")
I probably shouldn't let these things get under my skin but I'm like guys, there's shitloads of music out there!
I wish we could leave this song behind.
Seems the type of record that takes a long time to overtake
Millennial weddings (cont.)
2024
Incredible that it’s apparently one of the first songs the band wrote together.
Supposedly the only song they didn’t scrap after hearing Is This It, good call on their part to say the least.
It was straight up THE first song they wrote. The band started with just two of them. Dave Keuning, the guitarist, had the Mr Brightside riff and showed it to Brandon Flowers, the vocalist, who wrote the verse based off of his own recently ended relationship. He even admits to not writing a second verse which is why it's just repeated in the song
Their very first demo CD as a band that they passed around in Las Vegas in 2001 was just four songs, and only Mr. Brightside stayed to the first album. I think it's cute too that even today they're not sick of the fame or anything, and are still very happy and proud to play it every show
It literally is the first song they ever made as a band
Ok but how often are you at a party and That One Guy brings out a guitar and says “Anyway, here’s ‘Mr. Brightside’”? That’s one thing it can never take from Wonderwall.
The Mr Brightside riff is harder to play than it sounds, otherwise That One Guy would be all over it too ha.
It's also not really easily played on acoustic unless there is a cutaway because it's high up the fretboard. And honestly most of the chord strumming dudes who never have bothered to try to learn any lead guitar probably can't play it. It blows my mind how many people do nothing with a guitar besides cowboy chords for their entire lives.
Genuinely how do I move beyond that?
Are you wanting to train fingers or ears?
You'll have to look up "tabs" or learn how to read those, but you can look up the tabs to your favorite riffs.
If you want improv, practice your pentatonic box positions for a while, then play over a backing track
There's a handful of first steps, and people hate them all, but it is these methods.
Practice when you practice, play when you play.
This means take 10-20 minutes, find something to be a metronome and play it at 25 bpm.
Try Alternate Picking the CAGED system, because that will take the first position chords you already know, those shapes, and show you how they connect across the fretboard. The CAGED system is those chord shapes but you're voicing C Major, so you're learning Chord Voicing. Once you've Slow and to a Metronome'd that, you can move on to whichever chord shape feels natural to move onto next. G Major, G minor, D Major, D minor, F Major, F minor is how I went.
Nile Rodgers, Todd Rundgren, they know they don't have to ever play in the boring first position chords, all Oasis boring like, shit even the Beatles were voicing the chords up at the 7th and 10th Frets. And it turns out Dimebag Darrel was using those chord shapes, just he'd clearly slow and to a metronome'd The Modes, so could use those shapes to play The Blue Notes (knowing how to use the flat 7, Maj/Min 3rd, and use the Aug4th/Tritine to go between the Perfect 4th and 5th to resolve cadence).
So
Practice when Practice, Play when you Play
Slow and to a Metronome
something like Alternate Picking, an actual technique that requires development, and something like Pentatonic Scales or CAGED system to learn where all the notes on the fretboard are so you can Voice the Chord Progression using Voice Leading to stay in the same place.
Otherwise guitarists get stuck with the one or two things their favourite songwriters/players were recognisably doing, and trying to use the First Position chords all over the fretboard, when you actually do use those shapes it just changes from position (4 frets) to position.
Slow and to a Metronome is like a mix of turning your hands in to fine cutting knives, and learning to make decisions like your The Matrix bullet time, you think ahead and make choices.
Alternate Picking taught me how to get across the strings, and eventually how to do it with legato. You get across by going between the strings, and I dunno how many variations because it isn't just you up pick one string then down pick the other, like you're scrubbing with a rubber as far as the wrist action, what it shows you is you can counter-intuit your choices almost infinitely, you can express like nuts across the string, mute and pizzacatto and scratch a bit. Alternate Picking I didn't learn about for decades, personally.
CAGED system taught me I know where all the notes are so I can play that chord with those other shapes depending on where I am, and use Voice Leading (which I learned from Music Theory) to lead the notes from one chord into the next.
And yeah, The Scales and The Modes. Chord Progressions, Chord Voicing, Voice Leading.
I learned the riff in a cover band and quickly punted it to the much more talented guitarist who was happy to hang back and take the leads.
I personally think having an ear for key/arrangement is more important than technical skill. I’d encourage those stuck in cowboy chord land to consider this. The technical stuff can come over time.
But I know that’s not who you’re talking about hahaha.
And also just play other songs, never even bothering to make their own stuff, baffling
I saw a tweet the other day that called The Killers the closest thing America has to Oasis: melodic arena rock with one song that became completely ubiquitous among white people at parties.
Hah, there are a ton of examples - maybe the best recent example since Seven Nation Army and Sweet Child O Mine?
Journey - don't stop believing
Boston - more than a feeling*
Bon Jovi - living on a prayer
Joan Jett - I love rock and roll
Aerosmith - I don't want to miss a thing
Kings of Leon - Sex on fire
There's a ton more 80s examples but if you include kings of Leon as one of the new guard, there'll be a ton from the past 20 years. The strokes, cage the elephant, Weezer, black keys, etc
*Boston - more than a feeling
Aerosmith had a few ubiquitous party songs in fairness.
Oops, thanks! I even read that as I wrote it, thinking "hm, two prayer songs in the 80s, interesting" — As if I'm not that white guy singing it at parties.
Also yeah, bon jovi and smith might be cheating.
Yeah but you can’t play it acoustically at a party now can you. I think it’s more a modern bohemian rhapsody cause everyone at the bar loves to sing along with it
I also never know how to dance to Mr Brightside. People just kinda jump up and down.
yap that's how you dance to this song
Chill with the Queen comparison, not even remotely similar
Seems like the closest think UK has to Oasis 2
Neil Diamond walked so Bon Jovi, the Killers, and Oasis could run.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Mr. Brightside - loved it since I heard it as a kid, loved it when it became the unofficial anthem of my college - but as arguably the #1 Late Career Killers Enjoyer it is a SHAME that the average person is totally unaware of their other songs. I also think that Pressure Machine is one of the best albums of the last 10 years. Sue me
I'm just happy "All These Things That I've Done" also saw success. Also a banger to belt out in a group.
Can never decide if I think that or Spaceman is my favorite song by them. Such a good one
Always been my favorite. It's awesome live singing the bridge part of it in a huge festival crowd with 75k other people at the same time.
Pressure Machine is really special. My personal favorite Killers album.
Same. Both Imploding the Mirage and Pressure Machine tower over the majority of their earlier catalogue.
People sleepin on those two albums are missing out. PM in particular is staggering.
I think it really depends on what you’re looking for out of the band. Sam’s Town aside, their earlier stuff is way more dancy than anything on Mirage or Pressure Machine. Two different eras for a band that’s been around for decades.
Imploding The Mirage and Pressure Machine are masterpieces.
I’m increasingly coming round to thinking Imploding The Mirage is their best album, or at least on roughly the same level quality wise as Hot Fuss.
I genuinely believe they're on the same level, with certain songs being better than Hot Fuss.
Woah. You’ve earned these albums a listen from but I’m very skeptical of this take.
Unless you mean ‘the majority of their earlier catalogue’ to mean better than everything not named Hot Fuss & Sam’s Town - in which case I’d suggest you’re not really saying anything at all lol.
I love Sam’s Town, it has some incredibly high highs — but I might prefer ITM and PM over it as front-to-back albums.
Hot Fuss doesn’t stir me much but I can appreciate why it’s popular and its songs really work live in their set.
Also it’s worth noting that ITM and PM are totally different in tone and instrumentation — if you don’t click with one you still might click with the other.
Interesting - sensing a bit of a generational thing here perhaps.
Not messing with Hot Fuss? No love for Jenny Was a Friend of Mine?
I’ll have to check it out, I loved them in high school but haven’t listened to them in years after battleborn was disappointing
I’ve come around on Battle Born as well but there’s no contest that ITM and PM are huge improvements.
I think West Hills is the best song The Killers have written since When You Were Young (I am a huge fan of Battle Born, to me it’s their best and most cohesive album - at least before Pressure Machine came out, but I will admit it doesn’t have songs as good as Hot Fuzz or Sam’s Town), and everyone should at least give it a listen and then listen to the rest of Pressure Machine, it’s such a beautiful record.
Agree on West Hills for sure.
I love the Killers but always found that Flowers' lyrics can be really clunky at times.
But the storytelling in West Hills is fantastic. Agree it is their best song in years.
Best way I'd describe Pressure Machine is if Sam's Town lost all the glitter and bright lights, and was a more real-world version where all the good things didn't always turn out how they wanted. It's a very story-based album, and it really is underrated. And it's crazy, because it's not initially an album that'd sound good live, but they played Cody once, and the guitar just roars to life in a fascinating fashion. Extremely underappreciated album though.
Shit, I like the Killers but I’ve missed their recent albums. You might have pushed me to check them out.
Considering where the band went sound wise after Day & Age, I think Battle Born didn’t get the reception it deserved at the time — some really great dad rock and ballads (Flesh and Bone, Runaways, Miss Atomic Bomb, The Rising Tide, Battle Born). Wonderful Wonderful has some good songs (The Calling, The Man, Have All The Songs Been Written) but was definitely not to the level of their other albums. Imploding The Mirage was great front to back. Pressure Machine is phenomenal front to back. If you liked Springsteen’s Nebraska, it really is the modern successor to it. Brandon Flowers’ lyrics get some pretty well-deserved shit for being a little ridiculous or overly simplistic, but his writing style fits the style of music on that album so incredibly well.
Yea I didn’t like Battle Born when it first came out, but it has really grown on me through the years - it is so good. I’ll definitely look into their recent albums. Thanks!!
Their last two albums (Imploding The Mirage and Pressure Machine) are phenomenal. I highly recommend you give them a listen.
Just the whole album Hot Fuss is timeless.
Definitely. I'd argue Sam's Town is timeless too
Sams Town is their best work.
Is a band or pop artists most popular song ever really their BEST song?
100% agree. That one and Imploding the Mirage are probably their best albums front-to-back.
My Own Soul's Warning is objectively a perfect song
Yeah it’s probably my 2nd favorite song by them, after Pressure Machine
This is actually kind of poetic considering Brandon Flowers is a huge Oasis fan and they inspired him to want guitars in his music after he saw them play in Las Vegas in 2001.
The Killers are honorary British citizens at this point. It's where their career really took off and the energy at their gigs whether it be a festival or their own show is still the same in UK crowds as it was when they first performed in 2004
The sub-headline has the caveat:
Mr. Brightside is an absolutely perfect song in every way. This is a hill I will die on.
It kind of is THE banger of the millennial generation.
It’s the better song
"Anyway… here's Mr. Wonderside Brightwall"
It’s funny how both brightside and wonderwall have just 1 verse and just repeat it twice. Maybe that’s the secret to writing a classic song, just write one verse and repeat it haha
Wonderwall, are there 13 year old girls around , is this 1998?
I’m not into The Killers that much but Mr Brightside is a timeless banger.
Mr. Brightside was a really useful pull when I couldn’t figure out what to sing at karaoke in Japan
The best british band to come out of america
I find it amusing the #1 UK single is from a band from Las Vegas
Wonderwall never got number 1?
Incredible.
https://youtu.be/AT6MVLmyvdA?si=h1WZ0tFCvQc_BPou Mr Brightside at an Irish wake
Am I right in thinking that both songs repeat their first verse lyrically? That doesn't feel all to common to me past the early sixties, but perhaps it's a recipe for success?
It's about time. Take "wonderwall"outside and shoot it please
This is THE song to end any standard club night in the UK. It's a floor filler, everyone knows the lyrics and everybody loves it. Obviously Wonderwall is also up there but I think Mr Brightside takes it
I hate this song. Just reminds me of students going crazy on a night out as if it's the heaviest metal song every.