What’s your favourite song by The Killers – Mr Brightside? When You Were Young? Somebody Told Me? Human? All These Things That I Have Done? Well, whatever it is, unless from the recent Imploding The Mirage, the chances are it was written/co-written by Dave Keuning, the Las Vegas band’s founder member/guitarist (aye, “founder” as in back before they were the next hottest “indie guitar” outfit – remember those heady days?). And the significance of the previously mentioned songs, their near ubiquity, singalong-ability and sheer stick-on-festival-highlight suitability, surely make this, Keuning’s second solo outing, something of a “must” listen.
It’s a big, meaty sandwich, with 16 tracks (count ’em!), varying in length from We All Go Home at one minute 16 secs to Don’t Poke The Bear at 8:54. Dave frequently nods, with great affection, to 80s synth pop and while there’s much less evidence of the Springsteen-ian heartland stuff of the band, none of the first six songs would be out of place on a Killers album. After that, there’s less Killers and more filler – but, as with any sandwich, meaty or otherwise, it needs filler (Keuning was absent from Imploding The Mirage but is now apparently back in the fold. It has been said a number of the songs on Mild Case were offered to The Killers but, for one reason or another, went un-used).
From Stardust, first up, boasts a sunny, swoony, woozy vibe, and there’s welcome early evidence of a pure, clean steel guitar sound. The light and fluffy Ends Of The Earth has a Pinball Wizard-y riff and wouldn’t be out of place on a Killers album! The Fountain – containing the album title lyric – kicks off with a drum and guitar intro (reminiscent of a song by The Killers!!) before burbling and building to one of the album’s more memorable choruses (“too little too late too little … too little too late too little”) and a nice extended solo.
Already you may be thinking: “How does this compare to Keuning’s first solo offering, Prismism, in 2019? Well, to these ears, the songs sound more like The Killers (wouldn’t be out of place on a Killers album!!!). Dave’s vocal delivery seems more relaxed and assured, at times echoing The Killers’ old Pet Shop Boys pal, Neil Tennant (is that a compliment? I’ll leave it to your judgement). Stand-outs on Prismism included Pretty Faithful, I Ruined You and the title track, which starts out oddly off-kilter, as if destined for a David Lynch movie, and ends quite abruptly, like a lot of Keuning songs tend to do.
A Mild Case Of Everything continues with Time And Fury, probably the best so far – synth heavy, with shades of Depeche Mode, and Keuning’s smooth, laidback voice proving to be up to any demands placed on it. Bad Instincts is a rocker with the kookiest, hookiest of riffs, and No One Is Calling You A Liar may yet go down as THE hit single The Killers missed out on (as could What Do Ya Want From Me, but more of that later).
Killers front man Brandon Flowers (no stranger to solo success himself, of course) has been heard to fire up a live audience with the likes of: “We’re The Killers, which makes you ‘the victims’ … and I want every one of you to say ‘those are the sonsabitches that did it!” By track six of A Mild Case Of Everything, Keuning should at least be in the frame for grievous bodily harm (in a good way!) if not exactly a “killing” …
Does Dave rattling off 16 tracks like this in his San Diego home studio, written and recorded in quarantine, suggest the Killers-type formula is easier to replicate than you might have thought? Er … yes – a bit. Does it make A Mild Case any less fun? Absolutely not. And does it mean the next, upcoming Killers album will be any less of a major event? Again, no.
Track seven introduces something of a sea change with Hangman On The Ocean channelling ELO’s Can’t Get It Out Of My Head and heralding in a series of songs which tend towards that sandwich-filling frippery – one too many slices of pastrami, a stickle of a pickle, perhaps – certainly less significant than much of what has gone before. On The Ground and Peace And Love, as well as the likes of We All Go Home and World’s On Fire, qualify easily if unremarkably as perfectly harmless pop, but little else.
By the time we get to the heavier riffing of Don’t Poke The Bear, we don’t need Dave to tell us he came up with it “in the middle of the night and just kept adding parts to it until five in the morning” to identify some of the more ungainly splices. But it all comes to life halfway through and eventually heads for a strong finish with a seductive glam rock stomp.
The aforementioned What Do Ya Want From Me is an instantly engaging number with a swanky strut and a fine guitar figure, folky in origin (as well as ELO, a few of the tracks here recall another Jeff Lynne project, Travelling Wilburys). There’s a discordant section the song could be better without but otherwise this is clearly a highlight.
Lost Cause Holiday, as quirky and offbeat as Hangman On The Ocean, precedes You Can Stay, a heartfelt, acoustic-y slowburner (“Put your phone aside, let me see those eyes …”) with more folky influences. Shake Well promises a big finish but is a bit too jokey for its own good. Shake what well? Well, let’s just say it’s a guys’ song and lines like “all my brothers have a drink on me” and references to the inevitable, resultant toilet antics may be too “on the nose”, in more ways than one.
All in all, Dave Keuning’s personality seems to be stamped all over this collection and he is likeable and often fascinating company throughout. The titular multi-instrumentalist is backed by Seth Luloff on drums and Mark Stoermer, also of The Killers, on bass on Bad Instincts – which wouldn’t be out of place on a Killers album!!!! Or have I said that already?
(What’s MY favourite song by The Killers? Flesh And Bone – particularly the bit that goes: “And I hit like a raging bull/ Anointed by the blood, I take the reins/ Cut from the cloth of a flag that bears the name, ‘Battle Born’ …”
But that’s just me. And yeah, it’s a long story).
A Mild Case Of Everything, by Keuning, is out on June 25 on Pretty Faithful Records.