Oh my, whatever happened to The Killers? It seems like just yesterday when I could pop down to the local shopping centre and see teenage girls wearing Killers T-shirts, see them every time I flicked past "Video Hits" on the TV, and hear them constantly on commercial radio whenever I went shopping. Of course, all fame is fleeting when it comes to mainstream pop radio, but The Killers were a bit different in that their indie-synth hybrid was at least a bit different to the usual pap that makes it onto the charts.

Then, inevitably, came the slide. Frontman Brandon Flowers, in a moment of pomposity and over-confidence that would make Billy Corgan blush, declared that their second album, "Sam's Town", would be considered a classic in twenty years time. One gets the feeling that he didn't mean that it would be pointed to as a textbook example of a sophomore slump, but that's the only way that that turgid, overdone bore of an album is going to be looked back on.

For album three, the band seems to have learned their lessons from the "Sam's Town debacle. Flower's lyrics have been buried deep, deep, deep into the mix where they belong, and the botched attempts to sound like U2 during their more epic moments have also been dumped, in favour of smaller, simpler songs that play more to the band's strengths. It's for this reason alone that this album isn't nearly as embarrassing as their last effort, although it does have its moments.

Foremost among these is the signature lyric on the single Human, which goes "Are we humans/Or are we dancer?". At this late stage in 2008, I feel confident in declaring that this is probably the worst lyric that has actually been committed to tape all year, and probably the worst for 2009 as well. Normally I'm not a fan of record company interference in a band's creative process, but on this occasion I'm stumped as to why someone at Island Records didn't pull Flowers aside and instruct him forcefully to rewrite that line to something a little less asinine. Perhaps it's a rewrite of an even earlier, even worse lyric. Yikes!

This isn't the only terrible lyric on the album though, there are also other little gems like "To cast my shadow by the holy sun/My spirit moans with a sacred pain" and " Bless your body, bless your soul/ Pray for peace and self-control". Picking trite lyrics out of this lyrical wasteland is like dynamite fishing in a barrel. It could be forgivable if the production was better or if there was a bit more energy and feeling in this music, but it's hard to disguise bad songwriting when the band sounds as disinterested and indifferent as they do throughout much of "Day & Age".

To be fair, there are a couple of songs, like the charming but lightweight Spaceman and the strangely compelling worldbeat of This Is Your Life that prove that when they get their focus together, the band are still capable of knocking out a decent little tune. It's just that these moments don't come often enough, and when they do come, they're too far apart to have much effect. Killers do singles well, but "Day & Age" proves that they haven't quite nailed how to do a complete album yet.