The Killers are a retro New-Wave group from Las Vegas whom The New York Times recently described as having “genuine fake British accents”. Indeed, the Killers combine a bag of UK influences from the obscure (Josef K) to the ridiculous (Flock of Seagulls) and end up sounding remarkably fresh and full of youthful swagger. They are like everything you’ve ever heard and nothing you’ve heard before at the same time — trying to track down the sources of the Killers’, erm, killer hooks will drive anyone over the age of 30 crazy. But they are utterly irresistible.

From the start, Hot Fuss is great fun. Jenny was a Friend of Mine rejoices in a helicopter sound effect last heard when Oasis were going through their pompous phase, a bassline that New Order’s Peter Hook would be proud of and a stupidly catchy melody that would fit primetime Duran Duran. What follows is no less immediately loveable. Smile Like You Mean It is a pop gem straight out of left field; the nearest thing imaginable to Morrissey singing along to Kraftwerk. They also playfully dabble in the kind of homoerotic intrigue that marked much of Suede’s best material — “Somebody told me/ You had a boyfriend/ Who looked like a girlfriend/ That I had in February of last year,” sings Brandon Flowers on Somebody Told Me. It’s all good. Unless you have an aversion to 1980s synths, great pop songs and sexually ambiguous lyrics, it’s hard to imagine why the Killers wouldn’t be anyone ’s favourite new band.

(Lizard King/Island)

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