An atypical LP from the American stadium fillers eschews the sometimes nonsense (“are we human or are we dancer”) air-punching pop-rock anthems for more reflective material inspired by Brandon Flowers’ Utah childhood. The songs focus on the downtrodden, the lonely and the dysfunctional, narrators with “barbed wire dreams”, from an opioid addict to a lonely lineman, and a married cop who kills his girlfriend’s abusive husband. Quiet Man sounds like classic Springsteen for example, but another difference here are internal narratives and painted by a variety of voice narrator inserts, such as on the confused teenage arsonist on Cody, or the sad story of a wounded animal at the beginning of Runaway Horses, a song which features Phoebe Bridgers. This is an album about smalltown culture, full of sadness, slow-motion tragedy but gentle escape, and is appropriately, in tracks from Terrible Thing to Pressure Machine to Another Life, is far more restrained than the Killers’ usual mainstream releases, and is therefore perhaps their best for more than 15 years. Out on Island Records / Universal.
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