The song at #39 on my list of 100 Best Songs of the 2010s is the deliciously bombastic “The Man” by The Killers. I’m a huge fan of The Killers, and have loved or at least liked every song I’ve ever heard from them. Released in June 2017, “The Man” was the lead single from their fifth studio album Wonderful, Wonderful. The song received mostly positive reviews from critics, and I think it’s terrific; it spent five weeks at #1 on my own personal Weekly Top 30 chart. I love how the music revs up at the beginning, then explodes into a pounding dance beat courtesy of Ronnie Vannucci’s power drums. Throw in a sturdy bass line, sweeping synths and band front man Brandon Flowers’ soaring tenor vocals, and you’ve got a fun, exhilarating tune. I also love when Flowers pays homage to David Bowie late in the song when he shouts “headed for the hall of…FAME!”
Vannucci has stated that the song is basically about how a lot of men feel invincible when they’re younger: “Sort of your chest out, the breadwinner, nothing could stop you… It’s tongue-and-cheeking that, how that is not really the point of being a man at all. It’s actually more about compassion and empathy.” The fantastically entertaining video, filmed in and around the band’s hometown of Las Vegas, shows Flowers playing several different arrogant characters who are full of themselves, all thinking they’re ‘the man’.
