Mêlée

The Masquerade

There’s a fine line between inspiration and imitation, and Mêlée’s third full-length does more than just toe the line—the album runs clear over it with little regard for the ultimate outcome. Culling their hooks and song textures straight from the Killers’ playbook, the band have filled The Masquerade with new-wave synths, shimmering guitar lines and plenty of soaring Brit-pop vocals—think Brandon Flowers channeling his inner Simon Le Bon—but the whole thing just feels stale and uninspired. It might be because the nü-wave explosion is more than a half-decade old at this point, but the redundancy is probably due to the fact that The Masquerade simply doesn’t excel as well as the albums it aims to ape. Instead of the kinetic energy and steamy romanticism that made the Killers’ Hot Fuss so engaging and undeniably charming, we’re left with songs like “Immortal” and “The World Keeps Turning,” which replicate the formula fairly well but fail to materialize the way they should. The lack of standout (or even memorable) moments is especially disappointing given the outside help of songwriters like Kara DioGuardi and Mitch Allan, and it’s ultimately proof that anyone can don a sequined jacket but not everyone can actually pull it off.

Sire

“Wedding Dress”