Spaceman

“Spaceman” is the second single from Day & Age, The Killers’ third studio album, released November 2008 on Island Records. Produced by Stuart Price and the band. It opens at a run: a drumline, a synth hook, Brandon Flowers singing about alien abduction as a frame for dislocation. Price’s production lifts it wide, arena scale with sharp edges, the kind of track that sounds designed for open spaces. The song is confident in the specific way that only a band with two successful albums already behind them can manage.

The Killers arrived in 2004 with Hot Fuss and immediately divided opinion in a way that meant they mattered. British press claimed them before American critics had decided what to make of a Las Vegas band drawing so openly from New Order and Duran Duran. The songwriting was tight and the hooks landed. Sam’s Town in 2006 swung toward Springsteen and heartland rock. Day & Age pulled back toward the synthesizer. Each album was a different argument about what guitar music could still do. Day & Age debuted at number one in the UK, the band’s third consecutive British chart-topper.

The Killers formed in Las Vegas in 2001. Brandon Flowers and Dave Keuning started the band. Mark Stoermer on bass and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. on drums completed the lineup. Hot Fuss went to number one in the UK and produced “Mr. Brightside,” a song that has never entirely left the charts. Sam’s Town debuted at number one in the UK in 2006. Three albums. Three UK number ones. A Las Vegas band that the British decided was theirs before anyone else made a claim.