Battle Born by The Killers

Brandon Flowers of The Killers is a seventies front man in a 2012 band. Nothing Flowers does is small. His voice is Big. Often times people say that his lyrics and style is like an overamped Springsteen but I think that the more you listen to Flowers you can here a plethora of influences. Freddie Mercury, John Waite and Meatloaf all have lent themselves to some of the songs Brandon Flowers sings.

The Killers are from Las Vegas and maybe that in itself tells you all that you need to know about them. They are the quintessential rock and roll band you would expect from Vegas. Bombastic, loud, overdone, and brilliant.

This album has been number one on my hit parade this week. Each time I listen to it I hear another feeling, sound, instrumentation, note, that takes me back to the eighties. It is as if Flowers did not grow up in the eighties so much as breathe them into his cells.

The album is strong all the way through. Runaways is straight ahead rock and roll, the first single and should be enough to get the album some attention. It is also as strong a track as it is not close to being the best song on the album.

Here With Me is a monstrously good song. One can hear Guns and Roses November Rain, Meatloaf and others but perhaps what we should start saying is we can hear Flowers. The line " Don't want your picture in my cell phone, I want you hear with me." If radio still played rock and roll this song would be a huge hit. In my teenage years this song would have been one of the biggest songs of the year, MTV would have had some super over the top video in heavy rotation and girls would have swooned. In today's music scene this might not even be a single.

The Way It Was when I listened to the first few bars, before Flowers voice comes in and I thought I was listening to " We Built This City" era Jefferson Starship. Another strong song.

A Matter of Time goes back much more to The Killers first album, it would fit on Hot Fuss easily. Flowers is actually a very strong lyricist.

Deadlines and Commitments has a chorus which saves it from being an otherwise mundane song. Flowers rings out " If you should fall, upon hard times, if you should lose your way, there is a place here in this house, that you can stay." There is something to be said for having a place we can count on.

Miss Atomic Bomb is another flash of lyrical lightning, with "racing shadows in the moonlight, in the desert on the hot night," Mr. Flowers better make sure he sends the royalty check to the right address for Mr. Springsteen. Still a strong song.

Heart of a Girl again does Springsteen, perhaps better than he has in the last ten years, with lots of " she said and I said" the only thing that makes this more Killers than knock off is the background music of being much more modern and much less sparing than a Springsteen version would be.

Be Still is a typical power ballad. This song is the one in which Flowers uses what sets him apart. His voice rings, almost a capella in parts, " Don't break character, you've got a lot of heart, " with a great note on lot....this song may not be radio friendly but one can imagine a lot of sad young people, those who cannot wait to get out of their all enclosing hometowns, who cannot wait to start their lives, listening to this song and feeling inspired.

This is a, pardon the pun, killer album. Look up all your adjectives for overdone, over the top, bombastic, if not name dropping then sound and riff dropping from classic bands, and you will find a picture of The Killers. On this album it all works. Tremendously.