(Credit: Olivia Bee)
The Killers
new album, Imploding The Mirage
, is being hailed as one of the best in their catalogue -- it is already the band’s best-reviewed album across the board -- and music fans around the globe agree. The album has given The Killers their sixth consecutive #1 album in the UK (and Brandon Flowers’ 8th #1 in the UK overall including his two solo albums), in addition to landing at #8 in the Top 10 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, making it their sixth Top Ten album in America. The album is #2 on the Billboard Top Albums chart, right behind Taylor Swift’s folklore, as well as #1 on the Billboard Rock Albums chart. It’s also given the band their second consecutive #1 in Australia; their fifth #1 in Ireland; a Top Five album in Austria, Belgium, Mexico, and New Zealand; and a Top Ten album in Canada and Germany.
Imploding The Mirage has already spawned a monster hit in first single “Caution” which reached #1 at the top of both the Alternative and Triple A radio charts; the song is currently sitting pretty in the Top 15 at Hot AC Radio. The band’s newest single, “My Own Soul’s Warning,” is currently Top 10 at both Alternative and Triple A as well.
Imploding The Mirage - produced by the band in conjunction with Shawn Everett and Jonathan Rado of Foxygen - was recorded in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Park City, UT. It is the first Killers album to be written and recorded since leaving their hometown of Las Vegas, NV. Imploding The Mirage a lso features a brilliant array of collaborators, another first for the band who have typically kept guest spots on their albums to a minimum. The list of featured artists includes Lindsey Buckingham, kd lang, Weyes Blood, Adam Granduciel (War On Drugs), Blake Mills, and Lucius.
Since the release of their 2004 debut, Hot Fuss, The Killers have sold 28 million albums, headlined stadiums and festivals around the world and won dozens of accolades globally. The band continues their reign as America’s heartland heroes as they head into Imploding The Mirage. Following their 2017 Billboard #1 album, Wonderful Wonderful - a love letter of sorts, as Brandon Flowers crafted songs of encouragement to his wife during crippling bouts of depression - Imploding The Mirage is the light after the dark; the overcoming of sadness and moving into celebration. It’s a record about eternal love, perseverance through hard times, and the strength gained from friendships and familial bonds whilst weathering a storm.
Indeed, Imploding The Mirage leaves the grit and glitter of Vegas behind for something more expansive and triumphant. (Literally. Flowers moved his family from the parched flats of Vegas, NV to the lush mountains of Utah before beginning work on the record.) It’s an album that also pushed the band out of their musical comfort zone, exploring new terrain and referencing the albums in their collection that filled them with a sense of romance and camaraderie in their youth. Influences include Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel, as well as Killers’ touchstones like Bruce Springsteen and New Order. Throughout it all, Flowers remains a wholly singular songwriter.
Praise For Imploding The Mirage...
NPR MUSIC
"The Killers come storming back with a big, anthemic collection"
VARIETY
"If ever there was a time to fall in love with The Killers during the band’s 20-year existence, it’s now."
PITCHFORK
"Led by the exquisite brio of Brandon Flowers, the Las Vegas band returns with one of their biggest and best albums, a marvelously absurd collection of synth-rock gems and arena anthems."
BROOKLYN VEGAN
"Their best album in over a decade"
LOS ANGELES TIMES
The group’s most satisfying record since 2008’s “Day & Age,” “Imploding the Mirage” reaches for the same go-for-broke quality — and the same iconographic lyrical splendor — that power Killers classics like “When You Were Young” and “Human.”
STEREOGUM
"Imploding The Mirage is the Killers’ most satisfying collection of songs in more than a decade. "
ATWOOD MAGAZINE
"Imploding the Mirage cements, in real time, The Killers’ legacy as one of the greatest rock bands of a generation. It is visceral and feverish, hopeful and relentless – a passionate, boundless embrace of the tenacity and sheer power of the human spirit."
LAS VEGAS WEEKLY
"Nearly every one of the 10 tracks on Imploding the Mirage overflows with confidence and ardor, at a time when this city—this country, this world—could use both."
FORBES
"Imploding the Mirage doles out bombast, introspection and ironclad hooks in equal measure...The lyrical themes are simple but universal: love, faith, the desire to escape from the shackles of your hometown. And the songs sound larger than life, begging to be shouted from the tallest mountains—or, more realistically, blasted from festival stages across the world as fireworks explode in the distance."
THE FORTY FIVE ****
A winning formula from the world’s biggest band. .. This is, for the most part, vintage Killers – glittering, gigantic and boldly triumphant.
NME *****
The Killers have made another dazzling statement of ultra-modern pomp, and one arguably even more in step with new generations of alt-rock. It’s a musical DeLorean: rooted in mainstream Americana but speeding into adventurous horizons.
DIY ****
An album that feels rich and invigorating, and proves they’re still one of our most treasured bands for a reason.
CLASH 8/10
A breathless career-high from the Las Vegas group, pitching the wide open vistas so potently explored in their lyrics against tender evocations of love and faith.
Sheer, unabashed stadium sonics delivered with a heart of gold, ‘Imploding The Mirage’ finds The Killers providing one of the biggest – in both a sonic and emotional sense – albums of their career. It’s a propulsive achievement, pushing their songwriting to the limit in a thrilling, Devil-may-care manner.
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