PopScreen: The Killers, "When You Were Young"

In their new video “When You Were Young,” Las Vegas quartet The Killers reincarnate the classic music video melodrama of boy meets, cheats on, and loses girl. This time however, grainy, sepia-toned footage tells us we’re in Mexico. The familiar saga gets a Tijuana re-telling: sweaty, mustached older greaseball takes advantage of 14-year-old future nun, sleeps with some other chick in a tube top, then somehow convinces no-longer-virginal schoolgirl to…come and work in his bar?

The formerly clean-cut Killers have all donned silk bolo ties for the occasion and made admirable attempts at growing greasy mustaches and under-washed ponytails of their own. Whether this is done for authenticity’s sake or simply to rip off Los Lonely Boys remains to be seen.

Another question mark lies in the video’s underlying message. Despite the multiple references to Jesus and the devil, neither song nor video seems to be overtly for or against religion, adultery, or anything else. Is it, “love conquers all” or, “be glad for what you’ve got”?

We don’t know, though this is not for lack of effort on the part of front man Brandon Flowers. Emboldened by the fledgling hairs (correction: hair) on his chin, Flowers is unafraid of over-dramatization. He writhes and clutches his chest on appropriate lines like, “You sit there in your heartache,” Get it? His heart hurts.

The song itself is decent, remotely danceable even. Borrowing heavily from The Cure and Bruce Springsteen, the band makes no attempt to incorporate any of the mariachi influences referenced throughout the video. It’s a pity, considering they went to the trouble of growing all that hair, but no big deal.

What’s not to love about schoolgirls getting ripped off by sketchy older men? Throw in some synthesizer, a handful of crucifixes, a few international stereotypes and the aforementioned underage hottie and The Killers have themselves a little fiesta. Olé!

—Nayeli E. Rodriguez