Real Goblin

I love The Killers. I often consider them my favorite band. Even if I ebb and flow deep into other artist’s discography from time to time, I always come back to the band that really started it all for me. Last year, rumors of a new album began to circulate. In anticipation of new music, I ranked all of the band’s studio albums.

I enjoy all of these projects to varying degrees, but for the sake of ranking, some have to end up on the bottom of the list.

Honorable Mention: Sawdust

Because Sawdust is more of a compilation album, I won’t be including it in the list. That said, there are some good songs on this thing. The tracklist includes first drafts that never quite became final drafts, songs that were never fully realized, as well as some covers and alternate versions. As a kid, I ranked “Under the Gun” among my favorite Killers songs. The project is worth a listen for diehard fans of the band.

7. Battle Born

• The Killers seem to bounce back and forth between glimmer and grit. The debut established a sound that would be traded in the following project for a new one. Then the third album moves back the other direction, and thus establishes what seems to be a pattern for the band. Today, they seem to have struck a balance. But Battle Born feels like a reaction to Day and Age. It feels like lead singer Brandon Flowers had the reins on this one, for better or worse. The album has some great ballads in songs like “Runaways” or “Miss Atomic Bomb”. There is a level of true, wholesome honesty here. But whereas the band’s sophomore album embraced a similar desert rock sound, this album feels too neat and clean. From a production standpoint, the sound feels polished to a degree in which something has been lost.

6. Day and Age

• Never was there a more drastic shift in the Killers output than from Sam’s Town to Day and Age. The band’s second album was critically panned at the time of its release. Day and Age feels like the band shifting to the opposite end of the spectrum in direct response. No other record in the band’s history is as glitzy and spacey as this. It does still retain that Killers’ core, however. “Losing Touch” doesn’t feel too far flung from something off of Sam’s Town, but as “Human” shifts to “Spaceman”, we are treated to a sound much closer to pop than the band had ever gone before. The album has a unique aesthetic to it, with lyrical themes that are in stark contrast to the sugary sweet synths. But short of a handful of songs that sound great live, it doesn’t have the same staying power as their other projects.

5. Wonderful Wonderful

• Wonderful Wonderful follows a 5 year hiatus for the group. Between 2012 and 2017, the band’s various members would turn to a few solo projects. A handful of albums came of it, including frontman Brandon Flowers’ The Desired Effect, which leans into a pop-ier sound and does so quite well. As rumors circulated around a new album, fans had hoped Wonderful Wonderful would be a return to form. And in a way, it was. Two singles were released prior to the full release: “The Man” and “Run For Cover”. In both tracks, the band felt more energized than they had been in years. “Run For Cover”, notably, felt like something from a bygone Killers’ era. And that’s because it was. The song was a holdover from Day and Age. The song had remained unfinished until the band received a little help from artist Alex Cameron. In a way, the singles were somewhat deceptive. While the album does contain a few high energy songs, much of the album is more quiet and contemplative. Bassist Mark Stoermer and guitarist Dave Keuning did not return for Wonderful Wonderful after both members had stopped touring years prior. Without them, the band’s 5th studio album was very Flowers focused on the lyrical end. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Much of the frontman’s personal life experience surrounding his wife’s PTSD influenced the writing, making for a number of somber and emotional tracks that aren’t typical to a Killers album. Sonically, Wonderful Wonderful is more familiar than the previous two projects. At the same time, it feels less focused than the band’s best work.

4. Imploding the Mirage

• Imploding the Mirage is Battle Born done right. The album is a blast. It leans into modern aesthetics, while still holding onto its glamorous indie rock and roll core. It has an electric start in “My Own Soul’s Warning”, which goes into what might be the best four opening songs in any Killers’ album: “Blowback” to “Dying Breed” to “Caution”. While the band’s original bassist and guitarist did not participate in the writing and recording of Imploding the Mirage, the band seems to have adapted to their absence. The 6th studio album from the Vegas rockers has tinges of The Desired Effect (a Flowers solo project). But it still feels very true to the sound the band has curated up until this point. Even the album’s more unusual tracks, like “Fire in Bone”, make use of Vanucci’s driving drums, with echoing background vocals and sparkling synths to great effect. Every song on the album is reassurance that the band does indeed still have it.

3. Hot Fuss

• Few bands debut with a sound as refined and iconic as The Killers did with Hot Fuss. Brandon Flowers met guitarist Dave Keuning through a classified ad in the newspaper, and the pair bonded over shared musical influences. It’s been said that Flowers, upon hearing the Strokes debut album “Is This It?”, scrapped everything they’d been working on and started fresh. While that original would’ve been interesting to hear, what we got was more true to the band. With new wave/post punk influenced sounds, the band creates a fully cohesive blast of synth rock. So many tracks from Hot Fuss have since become iconic, memorable, classics of the early 2000s. “Mr. Brightside” consistently remains in the UK charts nearly two decades after its release. Hot Fuss is undeniable and contagious. 

2. Pressure Machine

• Pressure Machine is what happens when a band ages like fine wine. The most recent Killers’ album is a contemplative, thoughtful, conceptual project about life in middle of nowhere America. Flowers draws on experience from his own life growing up in the desert. Opening on “West Hills”, a song that gives me chills every time, the band revels in sounds as wide open as the desert itself. The production is gorgeous, with sweeping strings and driving drums from Ronnie Vannucci Jr. that compliment every instrumental so well. There are some who complain when a band’s sound evolves beyond what it began as. But if the now 41 year old Brandon Flowers wrote “Somebody Told Me” today, it would be disingenuous. Thankfully, he made this instead, along with returning member Dave Keuning. The title track is beautiful in its simplicity. The album as a whole is nostalgic, but doesn’t shy away from telling it like it is. It is in this objective honesty that Pressure Machine shines. No hard stance is taken. It’s a time capsule that looks at small town America with equal parts affection and resentment. It was a very close call between the top two picks. But Pressure Machine doesn’t exist if not for what came before it.

1. Sam’s Town

• The Killers sophomore album is too often overlooked. Hot Fuss was an incredible debut record. It is high energy and admirably consistent. With their second album, the band was looking to prove that Hot Fuss was no fluke. Sam’s Town is a rollercoaster of grand, sweeping, desert rock anthems. The album is named for a small hotel and casino in Vegas, a city and culture that inspires the band to this day. “Enterlude” and “Exitlude” reinforce the feeling that the whole album is a show played for us in the dingy, red velvet lobby. The prominent synths from Hot Fuss take a backseat, but are still present and support songs like “When You Were Young”, which may be the best song in the band’s discography. The band takes clear influence from Springsteen, but molds his sound into their own shape. The elements of gritty desert rock are on full display. “Read My Mind” demonstrates the band’s full talent, from striking lyricism to instrumentation, which makes use of a classic Hot Fuss era synth line. Sam’s Town is a full, honest, all-hands-on-deck Killers’ record through and through. “Exitlude” plays us out. We hope you enjoyed your stay.