Artist: Killers, The
Label: Vertigo Records
Release: 2012
Running time: 51:18
Rating: 4/5
With their new album, The Killers remain The Killers. They only deepen the legacy of their previous three records, and it’s fair to say that with »Battle Born« they’ve driven their eight-year, phase-by-phase confession up to the peak of their creativity. That means the next one, album number five, will have to offer at least a mild change of musical direction if The Killers want to avoid the danger of becoming a parody of themselves.
An unorthodox opening that quickly becomes redundant once you realize that »Battle Born« is, to this day, the most mature, nitpickingly polished-sounding, arrangement-perfected and therefore wholly cohesive studio album from America’s alternative MTV darlings. After all, no fewer than five renowned producers worked on the sound of »Battle Born«, and they don’t exactly send out wallet-friendly invoices. But for The Killers that’s no problem at all, since over their career so far they’ve sold their four studio albums worldwide in over 16 million copies.
This is a new, thoroughly road-tested musical formula, an extremely well-honed mix of melodic polish, anthemic bombast and a healthy dose of rock intensity, which in sum sounds hypnotically gripping from the very first listen. The Killers have dosed the pile of songs on the new album in a colorful, varied way. Within such a narrowly defined musical groove, that’s no easy task. It’s precisely the maturing and experience of the musicians, with their creative inspiration intact, that powers the engine driving the band’s wagon onward and upward, and The Killers keep all their credibility in their musical maneuvers.
The ceremonial element, with its highly contagious arena pomp, flares up instantly with the opener Flesh And Bone, written in a mold of hypnotic, immediate catchiness that sucks the listener into the band’s world right away. Runaways keeps that grandeur going, drawing in subtle shades on U2’s rhetoric, with the basic difference, of course, that U2 would kill today for the kind of leading phrases an idea like Runaways generates. Runaways is also the track that gives Brandon Flowers plenty of room in the chorus to spread his wings and, for the first time on the album, decisively capitalize on his singing talent. The mood continues with the organic-sounding The Way It Was, a nostalgic song (with acoustic guitars pushed to the front) and a touch of “new wave rustic”, while the band still keeps up a high level of graduated tension-building between verse and chorus. That gripping atmosphere hits its peak in the chorus. The Killers are sly foxes who studied in advance exactly what grabs a crowd right off the bat. They know exactly what they’re doing, they know what they want, they’ve got a clear focus, and the album confirms it as it goes on.
The songs simply don’t buckle. There are no dips in quality. What’s especially interesting is the realization that, as the album goes on, a generous helping of “heartland rock” melodies creeps in. That’s the way of delivering a melody you know from the likes of Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, The Eagles… Nothing new for The Killers, except that on »Battle Born« this element is pushed even further into the foreground than on the band’s past records. It’s especially pronounced in the choruses of A Matter Of Time, Miss Atomic Bomb, From Here On Out and Heart Of A Girl.
It’s interesting that the band keeps that ceremonial feel going even in the ballads. Take Here With Me, a ballad with rather shallow naivety in the verses, where Brandon’s vocal pedigree carries the job of holding up the song’s bold arrangement credibility. The central vocal showcase is richly contrasted by the added orchestration. The album’s other such moment sits near the end. The ballad Be Still, perfect as a soundtrack for a Christmas scene of logs crackling in the fireplace while snowflakes quietly drift down on a winter night.
The track Deadlines And Commitments is shaped with an especially perfect melodic payoff, and with its melancholic sentiment, set in a slightly different arrangement and production setting, it could have turned into a real west coast AOR gem. This is the point on the album where The Killers deliberately crash into bigger pop territory. The atmosphere-building leans more on programmed samples and added keyboard makeup, while the guitar slinks off a bit into the background. The structure of this song proves that The Killers are very skilled arrangers. It’s a song that will remain a hidden hit single that the band will never release. This highly coherent piece is wrapped up by yet another sublimely ceremonial moment! That’s the title track, where the energy of the opener Flesh And Bone manifests once more, and the album gets an effective ending, seasoned with the calm, U2-ish closing sentiment of Brandon’s vocal line.
When The Killers wrapped up their tour in January 2010, they announced a longer break, but in that time singer Brandon Flowers and bassist Mark Stoermer each put out a solo studio album, and drummer Ronnie Vannucci was also involved in releasing an album with the side project Big Talk. So there was hardly any rest, and in July 2011, when The Killers officially announced they were reactivating their creative engines, nobody expected a new studio album to be out as soon as this September. And to top it all off, the most mature work of the band’s career to date.
Simple. The Killers boldly poured into it the fresh, rich experience of their megalomaniac touring mileage and of the individual members’ recent studio adventures in other musical settings! They didn’t let themselves get lulled to sleep or just float on the laurels of the success of »Day And Age«, but masterfully built on the story of the previous album instead!
Line-up
Brandon Flowers – vocals, synthesizer
Dave Keuning – guitar, backing vocals
Mark Stoermer – bass guitar, backing vocals
Ronnie Vannucci – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Production
Stuart Price, Steve Lillywhite, Damian Taylor, Brendan O’Brien, Daniel Lanois & The Killers
Track list
01. Flesh and Bone
02. Runaways
03. The Way It Was
04. Here with Me
05. A Matter of Time
06. Deadlines and Commitments
07. Miss Atomic Bomb
08. The Rising Tide
09. Heart of a Girl
10. From Here on Out
11. Be Still
12. Battle Born
