The Killers Go Country? Brandon Flowers Preps New Nashville Album

The talk started around the 2021 album from the rock band The Killers called Pressure Machine. Was Mr. Brightside going country? It was probably a stretch to characterize that album as such since it fell more into the categories of folk rock or Heartland rock, or the always-nebulous “Americana.” But not far off from projects from Waxahatchee or Lord Huron, you could see the country influences seeping through the popular rock band.

Now the frontman for The Killers, Brandon Flowers, has announced he’s made a bona fide country record that was cut in Nashville with country musicians to express influences that have been itching to come out of him for years. Where Pressure Machine was a half measure, his new album Thrasher goes all in. It will be a solo effort as opposed to a proper Killers record, but one that has the possibility of being an interesting and/or important bridge between two musical worlds.

“The fact that I love new wave and rock and roll has been well-documented. But a life is long enough to allow for more,” Flowers said in a statement earlier this week. “Walt Whitman said it best, ‘I am large, I contain multitudes.’ Well, I’m larger now than I was 20 years ago, and I’ve unlocked a room that feels like it’s been waiting for me all along: country western music, my father’s music. It has offered itself to me and the stories I have to tell at the moment with a breezy enthusiasm.”

Of course, artists from other genres crossing over into country is nothing new. And these crossover moments are always preceded by explanations on how they grew up on country, and they’ve always been big fans, though this isn’t always born out in the finished product. So waiting to actually hear some of the music Brandon Flowers was working on felt imperative before passing judgement.

“We recorded ‘Thrasher’ last July in Nashville, Tennessee, playing with the seasoned and extremely capable musicians that [Jonathan] Rado and Shawn [Everett] (producers) assembled was one of the highlights of my career,” Brandon Flowers says. “I hope you hear the joy in the record, because we sure had a blast making it. Oh, and this is not me running away from rock and roll. I don’t want to replace my old songs. I simply found room for more.”

You could consider Thrasher kind of like Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline album where he came to town with country songs, and used country musicians to cut them. In fact, Charlie McCoy who played on Nashville Skyline is also on the Brandon Flowers record, as are pedal steel player Bruce Bouton, David Rawlings on guitar, and as can be see in the video for the first single “Plans” below shot at Nashville’s historic Studio ‘A’, Mickey Raphael is on harmonica.

Clearly Brandon Flowers is not angling for pop country radio fame with Thrasher. This is a passion project. Studio A is the perfect space to capture “Plans” since it was bult to record strings and chorus lines in, like the ones included on the song. It has a very countrypolitan aspect to it, while also giving off a fresh perspective.

Brandon Flowers grew up in the small town of Nephi, Utah. Just like The Killers’ album Pressure Machine, those early life, small town influences are said to be strong on the new album. Sometimes with crossover albums, the performers are here to exploit country music’s popularity. At other times, they’re here to offer a counter-narrative to popular country. It’s still early, but Thrasher by Brandon Flowers feels like the latter.

Thrasher is now available for pre-save/pre-order.

TRACK LIST:

1. Does It Ever Cross Your Mind?

2. One Of Us

3. Tiger’s Blood

4. Plans

5. Paradise

6. Miss America

7. Angel

8. The Red Ground

9. In a Heartbeat

10. An American Dream