Music Review: Killers "Read My Mind"

Killers

Read My Mind

Album: Sam’s Town

Year: 2006

         Brandon Flowers reaches out to his distant girlfriend in the impetuous “Read My Mind.”

               Hushed synths open the single, setting a wispy tone. He’s out with his girlfriend, running errands at the grocery store. He’s ordering lunch meat. While the clerk is slicing the meat, he notices his girlfriend standing by the oranges, her leg propped on the shopping, staring in another direction with a frown on her face. The clerk, with the meat right in front of his face, asks in a loud voice if it’s ok. He nods his head and returns his glance back to his girlfriend, wondering what she’s upset about. Once they get in the car, she says she wants to be anywhere but in suburbia. She’d rather live in an interesting city, like Los Angeles or Washington, where things actually happen. She tells him he’s become complacement, unwilling to think for himself. (“On the corner of main street/Just tryin' to keep it in line/You say you wanna move on and/You say I'm falling behind.”)

          As he is listening to her, he wonders if she actually really knows him at all. He would like to eventually move somewhere else. He’s trying to establish himself right now. He’s been looking on the internet at job postings and has been finding he has enough experience to at least apply for them. He has the drive to work hard and show what he can do. He hasn’t settled at all. (“Can you read my mind?/Can you read my mind?/I never really gave up on/Breakin' out of this two-star town/I got the green light/I got a little fight/I'm gonna turn this thing around/Can you read my mind?/Can you read my mind?”)

          In the pre-chorus, he remembers when the world wasn’t cutthroat. Chances aren’t given out like flyers for a party. Important moments go by unnoticed and without recongnition. Often, it means struggling in order to achieve the dream job. (“The good old days, the honest ma/The restless heart, the Promised Land/A subtle kiss that no one sees/A broken wrist and a big trapeze.”)

              In the chorus, he knows he’s already lost her. She’s inspired him over the last couple years. He wishes he could see him the same way. He needs her to know she has him figured out wrong. (“Oh well I don't mind, if you don't mind/'Cause I don't shine if you don't shine/Before you go, can you read my mind?”)

They have since broken up. He stops by her house with some things she forgot. While they are exchanging pleasantries, he looks for some spark in her eyes, a soft gaze that he had gotten through to her. As he walks back to his car, he thinks he should’ve seen it coming. In college, she put off studying abroad and by the time she had the extra money to go, it was graduation. Her boredom set her off. He can’t compete a with lifelong dream. The stars in her eyes, which hardly appeared around him, come out when she talks about living in a new country. She’s already got her bags packed. (“It’s funny how you just break down/Waitin' on some sign/I pull up to the front of your driveway/With magic soakin' my spine/Can you read my mind?/Can you read my mind?/The teenage queen, the loaded gun/The drop dead dream, the Chosen One/A southern drawl, a world unseen/A city wall and a trampoline.”)

          In the second chorus, he wants her to at least question her quick dismissal of him. (“Oh well I don't mind, if you don't mind/'Cause I don't shine if you don't shine/Before you jump/Tell me what you find when you read my mind.”)

           In the bridge, he remembers the carefree girl he once knew. He believes the old her will come back someday.. She said she would talk to him about why he left. He waited for weeks for answer and finally gave up. He wants to know what caused the sudden change in her.  However, she’s cut off contact and he misses her. (“Slippin’ in my faith until I fall/You never returned that callWoman, open the door, don't let it sting/I wanna breathe that fire again.”)

           In the final chorus, he remembers when she told him how much he changed her life. (“She said I don't mind, if you don't mind/'Cause I don't shine if you don't shine.”)

            In the final section, he was able to get ahold of her and asks her to lean on him. He’ll help her through whatever she’s trying to escape. One day, she will understand him again.  (“Put your back on me/Put your back on me/Put your back on me/The stars are blazing like rebel diamonds cut out of the sun/When you read my mind.”)

Flower’s hopeful, reverent vocals repel against his girlfriend’s walls,  ignoring the bruises on his arms and legs he’s acquiring as he climbs. Something’s wrong and he knows it. If she only would tell him.

            The yearning “Read My Mind” sifts through every wayward expression, salvaging each lost conversation in order to fight its way back inside.