10 Perfect Rock Songs Of The 2000s
3. Mr. Brightside - The Killers
As the '00s unfolded, rock and roll wasn't really quite sure what the next popular genre was going to be. Ever since grunge came and went, it seems like everyone has still been searching for the next trend that would take over the world the same way Kurt Cobain did, with very mixed results every time. For the time being, rock was getting a lot more retro, and the Killers got away with one of the stickiest hooks in rock history on their first try.
Then again, the catchiness of Mr. Brightside almost seems to exist outside of rock and roll altogether, feeling more like a relic from the golden age of MTV than anything else. This was all original though, and Brandon Flowers constructed a perfect melody out of this scenario, where he sees his former flame with another man and wondering about all of the things that she could be doing now that she's not with him anymore. It's a tale of jealousy, but the entire song still feels like one of the most lived in love songs of all time.
Even though most of the verses are just Brandon laying out all of his insecurities, this is the sound of what happens when you see an old lover, trying to make sense of it in your head and it feeling like the end of the world most of the time. Looking at the lyric, it might read as a little bit shallow, but that's not how the charts operate. This is pop music, and piling on the melodrama only makes it that much better.