The Killers tell poignant small-town short stories on Pressure Machine
Brandon Flowers and company offer a welcome break from The Killers’ usual form on their latest album
Music Reviews Pressure Machine
After The Killers released last year’s successful Imploding the Mirage, the isolation of quarantine then inspired Brandon Flowers to revisit his small-town upbringing in Nephi, Utah. In the resulting Pressure Machine, the current Killers lineup explores the peaks and valleys that exist in the American small town—religion, domestic violence, and more, on through to the tight sense of community that can’t be replicated anywhere else. It’s a more pared-down version of The Killers than fans are used to, taking a break from the group’s usual showy flourishes: Flowers calls the new tracks “songs that would have otherwise been too quiet and drowned out by the noise of typical Killers records.” This gives the band’s strengths—poetic lyrics, Flowers’ anguished vocals, and the welcome return of Dave Keuning’s powerful guitar licks—a chance to shine. Most songs lead off with a quote from small-town residents related to the lyrics that follow, be it church, drugs, trains, horses, work, or just someone claiming they never want to live anywhere else but where they are.
That nostalgic vibe (look for lyrics about running through the sprinklers and happy meals) can lean into ’80s-sounding synths, as in “Quiet Town,” a haunting ode to a town’s gone-too-soon youth, whether residents are falling victim to a Union Pacific train accident or opioids: “Now banners of sorrow mark the front steps of childhood homes.” Some of The Killers’ storytelling gets even more granular on Pressure Machine: “In The Car Outside” is like a version of Springsteen’s “The River” from a different angle, as a too-young father tries to grab a few moments of peace, stress-fueled synths mimicking his own anxiety as he looks back to “remember when she used to set the room on fire with her eyes / Swear to god.” Phoebe Bridgers shows up on the completely minimalist “Runaway Horses,” an ode to a small-town girl with a “coca-cola grin” and “honeysuckle skin” who traded “school for weddings rings and rent.” (At the very least, Pressure Machine works as a really effective campaign for teenage birth control.)
The rural stories in Pressure Machine ultimately string together narratively, like a Sherwood Anderson collection. “Desperate Things” is another troubled vignette, about a married highway patrolman who gets involved with an abused wife. It starts out plaintive, with mournful steel guitar underlying lines like “There was blood from her mouth dry on her shoulder,” then segues into surreal 4AD territory as the cop narrator takes revenge on his lover’s abuser: “I’ve never had much patience for guys that hit / For more than just obvious reasons.” Songs like “Cody,” with its angelic horns, and the title track examine the religious groups these small communities often depend on (Flowers grew up in the The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints), building to the orchestral country of album closer “The Getting By,” which floats on an ethereal sea of strings.
Appropriately, one of the last sounds on the album is a train whistle (is it the most mournful sound in the world?) indicating the promise of escape from what Flowers calls a “barbed-wire town”—but it’s off in the distance, too far away to seem real. It’s a fitting close to Flowers’ warts-and-all tour of the place taking prominence in his memory—effectively scored by some of the most openly emotional music The Killers have ever created. The unflinching nostalgia of Pressure Machine is strong enough to inspire our own thoughts back to wherever we think of as “home,” and how it remains a part of us even if it’s not the place we would have chosen ourselves.
12 Comments
imo it’s their best album ever. honestly stunned by the maturity, cohesiveness and lyrical quality on display, especially from a band who… have not always reliably had any of the three“West Hills” is just simply superb
Their last album was a major disappointment to the extent I wondered if they could get it back. Very glad to hear this one is better.
honestly stunned by the maturity, cohesiveness and lyrical quality on
display, especially from a band who… have not always reliably had any
of the threeYou mean you didn’t find the lyrics “are we human or are we dancer?” mature, cohesive, or lyrical? But seriously, I need to check out this album. At their best, The Killers had a sort of Springsteen-ish anger and love/hate relationship with small town America and it sounds like they are leaning into that with this.
I’ll give that lyric this: it’s one of my favourite terrible lines of all time. just thinking about it makes me smilethe writing on this new one truly is great, though, easily his best work
But what else could possibly rhyme with “answer”?
Cancer. Prancer. Lancer. Maybe “Are we human or are we cancer?” That would actually be kind of a deep line given how humanity is in a way a cancer of this planet, growing and growing and killing it.
I’ve loved this band from the start, and they’ve had a lot of great songs that I’ve cranked up and sang along to more times than I can count.Never have they given me chills on one song and made me want to cry two tracks later (West Hills and Terrible Thing).Separately, as a Springsteen stan myself, I really would love, and I do mean LOVE, having Bruce do a remake of Runaways with them, because from day one, I felt that song was direct lineage from his work and deserves him on it.
Strongly recommend the Gaslight Anthem for all of those mourning the Killers’ inconsistent Springsteen vibes: although something tells me most folks in this crowd already know about them.
I think this is their best Springsteen album yet, though I wish they’d find a more interesting way to update songs from forty years ago. Surely there must be something new to say about small towns? Or a new way to say it. Anyway, it’s a solid and pleasant album. If you’re going to knock off some of the best rock albums ever, you’ll naturally come off a little pat, but they got away with it this time.
Hopefully there’s a few songs about vociferously refusing to wear a mask or to get vaccinated – to really capture the spirit of small town middle America!
For the Killers, yeah I suppose it’s good. I think some of the praise is quite a stretch. And critical darling Bridgers showing up definitely boosts the album a letter grade.
this is easily their best album since Sam’s Town.