Façade.

If you don’t own Killers’ Hot Fuss yet, you’re really missing out. The album just gets better with each listen. It is accessible via the simplicity of pop music, but has more complex undertones through the lyrics and gloomy 80’s synth effects. It’s damn near perfect, other than the last song, which is completely worthless. When I listen to Hot Fuss, I pretend like the last song doesn’t exist and stop the CD right after “Midnight Show.” That’s your avenue to perfection.

Even though I feel like I’ve posted these lyrics before, I really like them, so no apologies if I’m being redundant. Of course, you can take the lyrics literally – pondering the innocence of youth, you reflect on your life, and saddened by how things are now, you try to put on a happy face, longing for the days of old. I have fond memories of “back in the day,” but am much more interested in the connotation of the façade implied by the phrase; the concept “smile like you mean it” endlessly fascinates me and conjures up buckets o’ memories – like when 8-year-old-you was made to sport a clip-on tie and pose for a picture, or when you got pulled over for the first time and gave the officer a big smile – “how are you today officer, what seems to be the problem?”

Of course, my recollections are not only personal, but extend to all sorts of observations I make almost daily – watching people interact at bars, watching anything related to politics, TV, Film – it goes on and on, and of course, the following quote from “American Psycho” always comes to mind (this coming from the movie; I’m not sure if it’s phrased exactly this way in the book):

“There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, hut there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping you and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.”

So, without further ado…

Killers – Smile like You Mean It

Save some face, you know you've only got one
Change your ways while you're young
Boy, one day you'll be a man
Oh girl, he'll help you understand

Smile like you mean it
Smile like you mean it

Looking back at sunsets on the Eastside
We lost track of the time
Dreams aren't what they used to be
Some things slide by so carelessly

Smile like you mean it
Smile like you mean it

And someone is calling my name
From the back of the restaurant
And someone is playing a game
In the house that I grew up in
And someone will drive her around
Down the same streets that I did
Down the same streets that I did

Smile like you mean it
Smile like you mean it