“I’m finally ready to do this,” The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers told NME about how now, at the age of 45, he’s found himself at a point with “an evolution of my craft” to write the songs that tell us the previously untold stories of his childhood growing up in Nephi, Utah. As a vehicle through those sleepy towns, tall mountains and red canyons, ‘Mr Brightside’ collects us in a pick-up truck of the old-school country that his dad would play to him as a kid, long before Oasis, New Order and The Smiths turned him onto a life of ‘Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll’.
READ MORE: Brandon Flowers tells us about making his most personal album yet: “I’m finally ready to do this”
He’s dabbled in Americana before, shaking off that ‘best UK band from the US’ label and Anglophilia of The Killers’ debut ‘Hot Fuss’ to go full Springsteen on ‘Sam’s Town’, with some country leanings regularly cropping up until the full-blown desert Western of their ‘Nebraska’-esque last album ‘Pressure Machine’ – where ‘Thrasher’ takes its cue. This time, it’s personal, but still loaded with vivid characters and his trademark chest-beating bravado.
From Post Malone to Beyoncé, country music has been oddly in vogue of late, but you can tell Flowers isn’t jumping on the literal bandwagon. Recorded in Nashville with an all-star cast of legendary players that wouldn’t stand for any B.S., ‘Thrasher’ comes from a place of authenticity. “Oh I could have been born in Bangladesh, but I wasn’t – I was born here,” he croons with a thick drawl and sense of home and purpose on hoe-down-starting opener ‘Does It Ever Cross Your Mind’, with that warmth radiating through the line dance invite of ‘One Of Us’.
Then open-road anthemics of ‘Tiger’s Blood’ see Flowers channelling The Boss to affectionately ride through a “disposable Kodak memory” of a “cheerleader working the till who wants to get outta this podunk place” and “peach-fuzz boys getting hard in the corner on Mortal Kombat”. It’s a beautiful postcard from a past life, especially on the soul wisdom of ‘Plans’ and looking back his simpler dreams of working as a casino valet before stardom came a-callin’ on ‘Paradise’. The most touching moment comes with ‘Miss America’, tenderly written as a letter from his sister trying to leave a cycle of abuse: “How much longer will it take ‘til we’re enough, to be the only thing you need?”
Sometimes it’s all laid on a bit thick, with the interracial relationship between a Black rising baseball star and a local gal told a little clumsily on ‘Angel’, and ‘In A Heartbeat’ slides into a pedal steel guitar snoozefest that doesn’t come to much, but the album rewards patience and your return. The highlight of ‘Thrasher’ has to be ‘American Dream’ – a surreal campfire retelling of one of Flowers’ own dreams about the end of his life, and featuring The Killers’ drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. Elvis picks Flowers up in a Tesla and they chat about life, the afterlife and if it was all worth it. The King throws him the keys and says, ”Put it on Jesus”. You gotta have love in a life of “God and glitter”.
If you’re looking for an indie banger then you likely won’t love ‘Thrasher’, but if you do-si-do then there’s a “sister album” on the way with a more “romantic” feel. We should welcome it. After the gentle radio rock of his debut solo album ‘Flamingo’ to the assured electro-pop of follow-up ‘The Desired Effect’, ‘Thrasher’ is another signpost of how far Flowers has come as a writer away from the glitz and arena pomp of The Killers.
We could have done with a little more of his Vegas oomph, but what we have instead is a whole lotta soul sold on pure and thorough conviction. As we’ve been learning from recent outings like ‘Pressure Machine’ and the criminally underrated epic of ‘Imploding The Mirage’, Flowers is a much better storyteller than he gets credit for. With country music, there’s nowhere to hide, now Flowers is out of his cage and doing just fine.
Details
Release Date: August 21, 2026
Label: Island Records
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