Something For The Weekend: The Killers - All These Things That I've Done

Let's get this nice and clear. Brandon Flowers, if he lives to be 106, will not write a better song than this.

Actually, he's written one other song that runs it close - 'Why Do I Keep Counting?'.

You're probably snorting. Thinking, 'What about 'Somebody Told Me'? And 'Mr Brightside'?

What 'All These Things That I've Done' and 'Why Do I Keep Counting?' have in common is that they're both the sounds of an all-too-human self-doubter howling out for a sign, some kind of spiritual redemption. I mean, apart from the sex and love stuff, shouldn't all songs be about that? (Also see - Gnarls Barkley - Crazy).

What makes 'All These Things I've Done' so delicious is that Brandon Flowers is, apparently, a man who believes in God. I half-envy people who believe in God, because they have a nice, neat moral framework to define the edges - a clear line of defence against all the chaos.

Then again, it must be pretty frustrating when, with all your fleshy, needful human cravings, you can't help but spill over the boundaries.

So, the narrator of 'All These Things I've Done' is a man who considers himself 'good' admitting he's done 'bad' and vowing to change track - to use the experience of the bad to recalibrate the good.

Musically, it's a glorious great stomping juggernaut. A one-man march of defiance against his greatest failings. A gutsy proclamation of how it hasn't killed him so he's decided to make himself stronger.

But The Killers - bless 'em - are hardly the most charismatic band in the history of rock. Just look at them. They pull all the right moves but silly haircuts and ill-advised facial hair can't hide basic awkwardness. Still, as the mighty JG Ballard once wrote, "Be ordinary in your life, extraordinary in your art".

'All These Things I've Done' is the sound of an ordinary man (got soul, not a soldier) creating something very extraordinary indeed.

The Killers - All These Things That I've Done