The Killers match postpunk guitars with a synthesizer overlay that recalls ’80s New Wave without burying their sound in nostalgia.

On their debut, Hot Fuss, front man Brandon Flowers plumbs his imagination for tales of murdered lovers (“Jenny Was a Friend of Mine,” “Midnight Show”), voyeurism (“Mr. Brightside”), and sexual confusion (the single “Somebody Told Me”), Flowers and his mates are obviously canny students; the total effect is of a playacted obsession, but one made irresistible by their skillful, catchy songs.

If there’s an occasional misstep (the painfully earnest line “I got soul but I’m not a soldier” from “All These Things That I’ve Done”), it seems of a piece with the Killers’ influences.