The Killers
Rebel Diamonds
ISLAND/EMI
The Killers’ discography being boiled down to the singular image of a Vegas roulette wheel is just…chef’s kiss. Their new best-of compilation Rebel Diamonds collects 20 songs for 20 years from the Nevada-via-Utah alt-rock band’s storied career, kicking off with familiar favorites from the new-wave relationship hangover LP Hot Fuss and the Springsteen-indebted Sam’s Town, and closing with a new (and overstuffed) synth-rock festival jam called “Spirit.”
The rest of the album highlights at least one track from each Killers album over the years, but the mid-2000s radio hits—“Mr. Brightside,” “When You Were Young,” “All These Things That I’ve Done,” “Human,” “Read My Mind”—take up a quarter of the compilation. Hot Fuss celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2024, but that LP’s sound was quickly bifurcated for subsequent albums into the U2-esque alt-rock anthem sides of the group.
The Killers in the 2020s have overclocked on the Springsteen style for recent albums, such as 2020’s Imploding the Mirage and 2021's Pressure Machine (the band even recently re-recorded and performed with Springsteen). Nocturnal power ballad “Be Still” from 2012’s Battle Born, “Dying Breed” from Imploding the Mirage, and “A Dustland Fairytale” from 2008’s Day & Age get serviced in short order to check each album’s box, but they’re lower on the marquee for The Killers’ overall output. Meanwhile discography lowlight Wonderful Wonderful only gets one track with the strobe light fiasco “The Man.”
Rebel Diamonds is a serviceable greatest-hits effort meant to elicit nostalgia, but it feels like the release lacks impact overall or any surprises that the B-sides compilation Sawdust had in 2007. In the post-Spotify era, this type of collection feels out of place. It would’ve been ideal to hear different renditions of these old favorites dressed up in new attire under Vegas neon, but instead about a third of the tracks are rocking the old skinny jeans and tight T-shirts of the past and showing their age in places. You can’t totally disregard the 20 years of rock songcraft from Flowers and his teammates, though. They’re still dropping flat bets with each new album and hoping for another hot table.
