The fourth Killers record might be their wildest neon-Springsteen fever dream yet. "This natural selection picked me out to be a dark horse running in a fantasy league," Brandon Flowers sings over Eighties soundtrack-rock synth effluvia on "Flesh and Bone," nailing his signature mix of sincerity and Vegas Strip lounge lizardry. A-list producers like Daniel Lanois and Brendan O'Brien help the Killers go after the cheeseball chalice, especially on the doomed romantics' epic "Runaways" and "The Way It Was," which packs Meat Loaf into a red Corvette and drives him out to "the lonely Esmeralda County line," where "paradise is buried in the dust." So is all good taste and discernment, and that's the charm.
Listen to 'Battle Born':
