THE KILLERS UNDER THE GUN

BY: Tony Brown

This Friday, the 13th, will be good luck for fans of The Killers. Granted, the new album promises to feature plenty of down-and-outers (characters, real and imagined). But, while some consider 2006’s Sam’s Town a concept album with book-end tracks called Enterlude and Exitlude, Pressure Machine will be the band’s first proper concept album. All the songs and stories they tell are about Nephi, Utah, the small town where frontman Brandon Flowers lived as a teenager. A town named for a significant figure in the Book of Mormon….is there anything more Utah than that? Unable to tour last year’s Imploding the Mirage, Flowers called drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. and said it was way-back-adventure-time. But, Vannucci, the ever-loyal bandmate, said, let’s ride.

Indeed, people will say that this record is a considerable departure for the band both sonically and content-wise. However, hardcore fans know this to be false. The band has always had an affinity for vivid storytelling and a growing love for Bruce Springsteen. So, they lean into this album. Just watch the trailers released to hype the record. There are quick cuts of Seeburg Select-o-Matic jukebox, a barn, what looks like the set of The Last Picture Show, and the side of another barn. There is also a cheap trophy-winged Victory as a hood ornament for a hoodless rusted rat rod with a shiny carburetor intake. It’s all meant to look like Super-8 footage shot through Instagram’s Nashville filter. In addition, the trailers feature quotes from actual town residents recorded by NPR for the project, clips of songs, and a lot of harmonica. All this and the album cover scream BRUCE. Even the album cover is an homage to the Boss’s first concept album Nebraska.

The musical influences are apparent. What about the literary ones? As his primary inspiration, Flowers cites Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life by Sherwood Anderson. It is a short story cycle of interconnected stories about the people of a small town and the coming-of-age of one George Willard. First, Anderson mentored Ernest Hemingway; the Killers get their name from the title of a Hemingway story and then use Winesburg as a model for its 7th studio album. This band loves to read. I bet Flowers won his share of Book It prizes from the Nephi Pizza Hut. Perhaps, the chain will get a special thanks in the liner notes.

Pressure Machine isn’t just a homecoming for Flowers. Guitarist Dave Keuning, who has been largely absent from the band since 2017, was back in the studio with Brandon and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. Still MIA is bassist Mark Stoermer. But, most of the boys are back in town.

Pressure Machine will likely be one of the most enduring albums to come out of the Covid-era alongside Bo Burnham’s Inside and Kanye West’s Donda.