The Killers: Sawdust

It takes chutzpah to

release a B-sides and rarities collection after putting out only two albums,

especially when one of those albums can politely be called disappointing. But

The Killers have never been short on chutzpah. Singer Brandon Flowers and the

band traffic in the kind of over-the-top passion best put across by swelling

synthesizers, ringing guitar, and heart-on-sleeve lyrics that only stop making

sense if you think about them.

With last year's Sam's

Town, the

band attempted to hide what they do best beneath working-class flannel, so it

makes sense that some of Sawdust's best moments are Sam's Town rejects that sound like

they were discarded for sounding too much like Hot Fuss. "All The Pretty Faces,"

for one, sounds like the last hit single Fuss never produced, and on

"Sweet Talk" and "Where The White Boys Dance," the band lets its love of

synth-pop float to the top.

Though covers of Dire

Straits' "Romeo And Juliet" and Joy Division's "Shadowplay" stick a little too

close to their sources to develop any real personality (and it's best just to

skip the country classic "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town"), there's a neat

bit of hero worship on the newly recorded "Tranquilize." The band coaxes the most

engaged vocal out of guest star Lou Reed that anyone's heard in years. If they

can break him out of his perpetual grumping, it gets easier to forget about a

misstep here and there.