Ashes to Ashes . . .

When you are building something out of wood, you will inevitably produce waste-product. It is a part of the process, a you-need-to-break-some-eggs-to-make-an-omelet situation for sure. But, instead of eggshells, with wood you get scraps and, more to the point of this review, sawdust.

The Killers, a band I love and think produce some of the best rock albums of my generation, gave us Sawdust, and the title was incredibly apt. This is not an album in the traditional sense of the word, because it is not songs that were chosen specifically for the purpose of making a cohesive whole. Rather, Sawdust are the remnants of The Killers previous attempts: Hot Fuss and Sam's Town, two albums I think are strong entries into our musical catalog.

Sawdust is not.

In an interview in Maxim, Brandon Flowers, lead singer of The Killers, was asked point-blank if this was simply a way to keep the brand in the public consciousness until a new album can be released. Flowers denied this, and said that these are songs the band really loved, but they simply had to make editorial choices when putting together the other albums.

The thing is, as someone who makes editorial decisions myself, Flowers is forgetting something: you never see books made up of chapters excised from first drafts.

Granted, music and novels are two different mediums, but these songs were left off because they were chapters that didn't make sense in the albums. Moreover, they were left off because they weren't great songs. They aren't bad songs, really, but they don't do anything for me. I'm simply underwhelmed. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the song I liked the best was a remix of their song I like the best, “Mr. Brightside” (the song is the “Jacques LuCont's Thin White Duke Remix”).

Of course, just as Maxim asked the highly critical question, they in turn gave the “album” a fairly positive review. It makes me wonder what they were listening to. And, even if it wasn't as subjective as I'm making it out to be (I don't think Maxim ever gives bad reviews to albums guys are “supposed” to like), there is still the fact that we are being asked to buy what is amounts to refuse. It's not like this a director's cut of a movie – these are not the missing tracks that “complete” Sam's Town. Instead, it's a CD of songs that a die-hard fan might buy so that they have everything from their favorite artist.

I never thought I'd be disappointed by the ethical practices of a band called The Killers, but they fooled me out ten dollars, and for that, I am ashamed.