HO HO WHO: The Killers return again to Christmas singles, with assists from Dawes and sad sack Owen Wilson.
CHRISTMAS CRAPPIN’: This is The Killers’ seventh round of Christmas singles for Bono‘s (RED) campaign, and they sound about as sick of it as their hapless actor-narrator is of his city. As the band turns the ostensibly holiday-themed single into a funeral dirge, the protagonist reflects on his long-lost girlfriend and the death of Warren Zevon. Merry Christmas!
COME ALL YE BALEFUL: A villain might be out of place in a holiday song, but “Christmas in L.A.” finds one anyway in actor Harry Dean Stanton. Responding to Wilson’s desperate questions about “how to make it,” Stanton offers some pretty unhelpful pseudo-philosophy; later on, he reappears drinking in a bar, where he straight-up disses poor Wilson. The wedding crasher is left alone with that puzzled, pursed-lips, Owen Wilson-like look on his face. Why doesn’t Stanton help a brother out? And how is it that this video and song aspire to raise money?
CHEER FACTOR: Piping this over the speakers in Los Angeles’ gargantuan grocery stores could double the city’s self-harm rates. 0/10.
