Battle Born

British music and cowboy hats

Born in battles are people of the hot Nevada state whose main treasure is the world famous Las Vegas, that’s what they think of themselves. Battle Born are the words you can see on the state’s flag reflecting the history of cowboy feuds and wars on natives. Now it gets clearer how the popular local band got this name, The Killers. In fact, when they were starting out, these four Americans did not associate their music with any American traditions. Involved in the British indie rock movement, these guys gained a serious support across the Atlantic and they could have followed that path… But by the time their fourth album was to be released, it was obvious that the new record would be considerably different than The Killers debut album. This was implied by solo projects of the band’s members who had decided to spend some time apart from one another and reconsider their song-writing principles. The outcome of these experiences and researches was the record also called Battle Born.

The dark side to The Killers

A whole team of established producers was working on this album which was molded at The Killers own studio. The place is, by the way, also called Battle Born. The patriotic line is continued by the cover of the fresh album featuring the classic highway and a mountain looming in the distance. You just can’t help opening the CD with an epic and dramatic song, which Flesh And Bone is. Together with this track, the galloping Runaways shapes up a war spirit to haunt the rest of the album. Yet The Killers decided to surprise the audience not with powerful rhythms and emphatic choruses (which have already become the band’s trademark signs), but with a striking seriousness and even tragic element in most of these songs. With quite mediocre and at times even banal lyrics, Here With Me, and The Way It Was sound so heart-breaking thank to the dark arrangements and nervous vocals. Be Still is a very strange song about a father who sings to his three kids a lullaby that may send shivers down an adult’s spine. But the Nevada-born fun makers still believe in their favorite tricks, choirs in choruses and extended oooooh instead of words. Well, these unsophisticated methods worked in full on A Matter Of Time, and Heart Of A Girl, granting the album more energy.

An album born in battle

The transfer from light, youth songs to thoughtful and serious stuff turned into painstaking process for The Killers. You can even say that the album itself was born in battle fought between the music they used to play and the one they plan on playing in future. Chasing the laurels of nation fate’s poet, Bruce Springsteen, is just beginning, and it is not easy to say how it will end. However, The Killers have several doubtless strengths they can use playing any game and any music. First, it is their leader Brendon Flowers, who, actually, initiated all these stylistic metamorphoses. He does new things so confidently that you can only believe him that it is the only way. Second, The Killers are no longer rookies, but already an established ensemble knowing how to work on a chosen style. Finally, it is too early to speak of a complete stylistic reform. Battle Born has songs that will sound great at a huge concert and as great in a cozy room. The band leaves the choice to listeners whether to listen to them making noise and jumping side by side with others, or to enjoy them in solitude, digging the lyrics and looking for secret hints in the vocals. After all, since these musicians were so good at playing indie rock from the distant British shores, what will stop them making most out of the rich musical traditions of their own country? They have certainly won the battle in which this album was born.