The fifth album by the Killers, 2017’s Wonderful Wonderful, suggested the band had created an identity beyond melodrama overly influenced by New Wave and Bruce Springsteen. The album also upped the quality of their discography to compare favorably, at last, with the achievements of similar groups like Interpol and Editors.
Imploding the Mirage keeps the Killers relatively modern, even hip: Wonderful Wonderful mixer Shawn Everett (who’s also worked for Kacey Musgraves and Beck) largely co-produces with Jonathan Rado, who brings his multi-instrumental talents over from his main gig, in the indie duo Foxygen, and has writing credits on seven of the ten new songs. Yet the Killers’ glam and yearning style remains central, and lead singer, primary co-writer and synthesizer obsessive Brandon Flowers remains the New Romantic man forever running in slow motion toward his beloved while keeping his hair perfect.
“My Own Soul’s Warning,” the first track, expands into big-screen proportions, Flowers sharpening the close-up focus with vocal vulnerability and Rado pushing the narrative forward with his deep bass notes. That combination of huge backdrops and small details manifests throughout Imploding the Mirage, and minor flourishes like solo-era George Harrison-style slide guitar or Dire Straits’ idea of frenetic pacing—in “Blowback” and “Running Towards a Place,” respectively—emerge as if the Killers are nodding acknowledgement to, rather than waving banners for, their heroes.
Heroes do show up. K.D. Lang pushes up the roof in the mini-majestic “Lightning Fields,” Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering soars through multiple tracks, and Fleetwood Mac mastermind Lindsey Buckingham matches any playing he did on Rumours with a guitar solo that shoots more voltage into the already-electric “Caution.” That particular song, a glorious single that would’ve soundtracked any other summer, is an especially high point among material that cumulatively establishes the Killers as pursuers of pop art rather than of pop charts. What (new or old) romantics.
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