The Killers’ lead singer Brandon Flowers is nothing if not a
storyteller. Going all the way back to the songs on The Killers’ first album,
Hot Fuss, Flowers’ lyrics have told the stories of guys hustling to get
androgynous looking girls’ numbers at the local club, obsessive compulsive
(almost stalkerish) lovers on the outside and a girl named Jenny who was a
friend of his. On Sam’s Town, the stories kept coming about girls who pine for
“beautiful boys” to come and rescue them, even if they “didn’t look like
Jesus.” On The Killers’ new album, Battle Born, Flowers keeps up the penchant
for storytelling. This time out though, the music that The Killers composed as
a band fits his stories more completely than it ever has.
Being a guitar/synth/area rock band, The Killers’ sound is
unique amongst the currently popular rock bands recording these days. They’re
also the most interesting and expansive sounding. The Killers have seesawed
back and forth on their previous albums between a more distorted synth sound
where the guitars were in the background to an ‘80s U2-ish guitar, bass and
drum sound where the synths were regulated to atmospheric aspects of the songs.
Songs like “When You Were Young,” “Bling (Confession of a King),” and “For
Reasons Unknown” from Sam’s Town were straight up guitar-driven arena rock.
“Mr. Brightside” and “Somebody Told Me,” from Hot Fuss, carried the area rock
torch as well but were much more atmospheric and smoky, traits that fit their
hazy subject matter excellently. On Battle Born though, The Killers manage to
put the two together better than they ever have before. They create a type of
area rock that stacks the synths and the guitars next to each other instead of
one on top of the other.
Perhaps the best song that they’ve ever written, “Runaways,”
is a perfect amalgamation of synth,
guitar, drum, bass and Flowers’ emotional (without being emo) voice. Flowers’
story of young love, the hope that a young man sees in the “blonde hair blowing
in the summer wind” of a “blue eyed girl playing in the summer sand” and the
toll from the struggle that a life built together can be after the “teenage
rush” fades is so universal. Nearly everyone who has ever been in love, had
that love tested, yet still burned with desire for their loved one, can relate.
The expansive and ascending mix of synth and guitar throughout “Runaways”
rivals nearly anything sonically produced by the aforementioned kings of arena
rock like U2. The true power of the song rests not with Dave Keuning’s guitar
lines and Flowers’ soaring vocals; it rests with Ronnie Vannucci’s drumming.
The intricate galloping of his beats is what makes “Runaways” the trip that it
is.
The album is packed with songs that fuse the synth rock and
arena guitar rock sound in ways that display their own power without being
rehashes of “Runaways.” “The Way it Was,” which effectively continues the story
of “Runaways,” is a mid-tempo rocker that is guitar driven but again manages to
make excellent use of the band’s more electronic leanings. Flowers sings of a
drive through the desert after a fight with his girl while Elvis sings “Don’t
Be Cruel” on the radio. One can almost envision the nighttime desert drive
Flowers is crooning about through the songs wide open soundscape. “A Matter of
Time,” which sounds reminiscent of “Somebody Told Me” is full of the frantic
energy that someone who desperately pleads “C’mon show me where it hurts/Maybe
I can heal it” would feel.
“Miss Atomic Bomb” resurrects a little of the area rock that
“Runaways” displays so brilliantly. “From Here on Out,” an acoustic and
electric guitar song that would squarely fit on any area rock bands’ mid-80s
album is the only song that leaves the synths turned off and surprisingly the
song is better for it. The album’s title track, “Battle Born,” is a genuine
rocker of epic proportions that pulls together everything that makes The
Killers a unique rock experience. Next to “Runaways,” it’s the song that’ll
please the arena crowd the most.
A nearly flawless example of how to write heartfelt songs
that aren’t trite, overbearing or overtly emo and perfect for the arena rock
fan, Battle Born is the album that solidifies The Killers’ relevance to rock
music with heart.
Review originally appeared at Shutter16.com
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