The Killers - Don't Waste Your Wishes

After eleven years we finally get full quality copies of the Killers' series of charity-fundraising Christmas singles, collected together as 'Don't Waste Your Wishes'.

Included in release order the songs do hold up as a solid album rather than a collection of one-off singles. The track-listing does live and die on the order and the best songs do come at the start, the first trio the highlights of the record particularly the opener 'The Great Big Sled' which is, in my eyes, already a Christmas classic.

That said later songs like 'Christmas in LA', 'Dirt Sledding' and particularly the Jimmy Kimmel-featuring 'Joel The Lump of Coal' are stand-outs and even lesser tracks like 'Boots' and 'Dirt Sledding' slot into place nicely. Only the last and most recent track, part-monologue, part-song, feels like a mis-fire but somehow comes to life more as the closing shot.

In a time when Christmas records are having a resurgence, this is a brilliant example of what one band can achieve over a decade. I just hope this doesn't mean the end of their annual treat, but if it does at least this is a superb record of the songs. (8/10)