The Music Note

Playing Wembley Stadium is a feat few bands achieve in their career, but for The Killers, last Saturday's gig at the 90,000-capacity venue holds further sentiment in that it marks a decade since the band's first ever UK gig, at intimate club, The Dublin Castle in Camden. In those ten years, the band have released four studio albums, ranked up 20 million worldwide record sales and played countless festival headlining slots, all of which have culminated to this mammoth gig at Wembley - their largest performance to date. The band took to the stage just before 9:00pm, with Brandon Flowers playing 'Enterlude' solo on the piano. The set then got underway with fan favourite 'When You Were Young', followed by the equally energetic 'Spaceman'. Flowers' vocals were on top form throughout the two-hour gig, though it was the Battle Born material that really demonstrated his range, most evidently on 'The Way It Was' and 'Miss Atomic Bomb' - both...

After the rich, soulful sounds of John Mayer's third studio album Continuum , I was curious and perhaps slightly sceptical at the thought of an acoustic EP based on that album. Though this is due in part, to the fact that, as I have mentioned in a previous post , I prefer listening to music with a full band rather than acoustically, in the case of The Village Sessions , there were more factors which contributed to my general lack of excitement prior to its release. Firstly, I love the production on Continuum , the instrumentation holds a consistent warmth and fullness that is complimented by slick arrangements and Mayer's thought provoking lyrics, overall culminating in a soulful, solid sound that runs throughout the album. However, it was attending the live shows throughout the Continuum era (and listening to all of the amazing fan-made recordings from the tours) that gave me a fuller appreciation of the album - the songs just sounded so damn good live, arguably even better t...