West Hills III – the Killers
March 26th, 2022 by G.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=xoTWeitx0nk%3Fauto_play%3Dtrue
Lyrics here, since the singing is as authentically muddy as any ol’ congregation on any given Sunday.
I don’t think it quite worked, but I admire the ambition. I’m glad they tried.
What might have worked, same song, same lyrics–would be a liturgical chant affect instead of a congregational hymn affect.
With apologies to Mansfield.
Zen
March 26, 2022
I am a fan of Gregorian chants, even for pop music.
https://youtu.be/4hg-Ke3arn0
Bookslinger
March 26, 2022
IMO, the lyrics are strongly Country-Western.
To my ear, neither the Hie to Kolob tune (Kingsfold, https://hymnary.org/tune/kingsfold_english ) nor the congregational singing seemed to jibe with the lyrics.
But I have to admit, that I don’t “get” Brandon Flowers/The Killers.
John Mansfield
March 26, 2022
I listened to Pressure Machine another couple times the last half of this week, and I thought about how synced the lyrics and music are. Compared to what?, I asked myself. Compared to Randy Newman’s stuff that puts them at cross purpose. I didn’t know about these alternate tracks. This take on West Hills is Newmanesque in that sense. As Bookslinger says, the lyrics are strongly Country Western, and so was the music of the track the Killers put out last August.
I like West Hills II better than West Hills III; it works, but the yearning and punch in the gut of West Hills (I) is something else. It gives a little view into the choices that lead to a song taking the form given to us.
Bookslinger
March 27, 2022
@JM: Ah, yes. Thanks for pointing out/reminding me of the content-v-form messaging technique. It was more apparent after I sampled the other two versions. “The medium is the message” – Marshall McLuhan.
My takeaway is now this: The speaker focused on localized meaning and temporary highs while ignoring eternal destination and glory. The congregation was looking toward eternity while ignoring those who were floundering around them. The juxtaposition highlights the ironic contrast – pathos both ways.
John Mansfield
March 28, 2022
It is egocentric to wonder this, but I wonder if with West Hills III Brandon Flowers is personally trolling me. The week before Pressure Machine was released last summer, I wrote a few posts about songs on the previous album, Imploding the Mirage. I pointed out connection I made between an earlier Killers song, Heart of a Girl, and the hymn If You Could Hie to Kolob.
Maybe that Jr. Ganymede post found its way to Flowers, and he decided to poke some fun at my idea. When I sing If You Could Hie to Kolob, especially at home with my sons, it’s rousing and rollicking, but this West Hills III is a little too close to what congregational singing can sometimes be, muddy and somewhat going through the motions, even half ignoring the words coming out of our mouths as Bookslinger notes.