Hells Yeah- The Killers Cover Bright Eyes' "Four Winds"

I can't not post this. The Killers have covered "Four Winds" by Bright Eyes and twisted it up completely. I love the original, and the two versions should honestly not be compared for quality because they're too different. They should just be compared for sheer polar difference. And still, in my opinion, this cover version works in its own way. Of course it's going to piss off hipsters to no end... but that's what the Killers do- take risks and endlessly bother music snobs- why not!

Take a listen for yourself-



I love it. Who knew you could mix Stewart Price's Pet Shop Boys effects, the Killers' touch, and Bright Eyes lyrics to make something awesome like this? Brandon's voice is flawless, too. Some people are complaining that he isn't expressing enough emotion the way Conor does- but I think it's a nice contrast. Anyway, he would be pummeled if he tried to show a lot of emotion too so he can never really win.

My favorite parts are:
:40 "four winds blowing through her hair..." with the sound effects, ah.
:50 "she just can't sustain..." with strings. Again, gorgeous. I'm such a sucker for pretty sound effects behind nice vocals.
1:20 "The Bible's blind. The Torah's deaf. The Qu'ran is mute. If you burned them all together you'd get close to the truth" - haha, I dig that Brandon is singing this even though he is Mormon. Respect.
1:48 "And it's the sum of man..." with the piano kicking in. I especially love the rising piano a few seconds later during the lyrics, "A heart just can't contain..."

I pretty much love the whole song, really. I can't stop listening. It's addicting.

To compare and see just how different they are, here is the original (sorry, embedding disabled):

"Four Winds" video by Bright Eyes

...and here is the same song but without the added crowd noise in the video, plus Conor Oberst's lovely, brilliant lyrics featured in it:



You know, no matter what music snobs say, it's pretty nice of the Killers to cover Bright Eyes, because this is giving them a lot of attention from Killers fans. They're also acknowledging the greatness of a very underrated song from Bright Eyes' latest sort-of-ignored Cassadega album. This is the first contemporary artist cover the Killers have recorded, or even just performed, previously- before they have all been covers from previous generation artists such as Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet", David Bowie's Moonage Daydream, Joy Division's "Shadowplay", Kenny Rogers/Mel Tillis' "Ruby Don't take Your Love to Town", Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", Morrissey's "Why Don't You Find Out for Yourself", etc.

This makes me even more excited for the Killers' upcoming covers album! It's going to be so fucking epic.