REVIEW: The Killers - Battle Born

After a brief hiatus following 2008’s much-discussed Day & Age, The Killers have returned with something to prove to fans and critics alike. Battle Born, inevitably, is a theatrical 12-track explosion of new material, harvested to epic and emotive proportions by a multitude of top producers. But behind all the bombast, and behind front-man Brandon Flowers’ vulnerable yet vivacious vocals, lies an LP by a quartet struggling to recover the form of old.

                Springsteen comparisons aside, via Hot Fuss and Sam’s Town, The Killers had established for themselves a distinctive style, one rich in passion, soul and melody. The track ‘Matter of Time’ demonstrates positive flashes of that spirited rhythm, its infectious verses both encapsulating and dance-inducing, yet before you can tap your left foot the song fades into the rather formulaic and uninspiring sound that dominates the rest of the LP. Too many moments are forgettable and lacking variation and power. ‘Miss Atomic Bomb’ could be an old U2 album track, while ‘The Rising Tide’ has echoes of Keane. These cuts aren’t poorly crafted or executed as such; they just lack the character that The Killers are capable of creating.

                ‘Here With Me’ is Battle Born’s lighter/iPhone torch moment. Though genuinely catchy, and simplistically romantic, it will stay in your head for all the wrong reasons. Co-written (unsurprisingly) with Travis lead singer Fran Healy, the chorus is, well, tacky: ‘Don’t want your picture/On my cell phone/I want you here, with me.’ Aww. It sounds all too much like a Boyzone single, and this is from the band that created the contrastingly beautiful ‘My List’. Similarly, penultimate song ‘Be Still’ is a touching highlight, but is somewhat ruined by cliché-infested lyrics: ‘When you’re in too deep/In your wildest dreams…/When they knock you down.’ Still, what can you expect from a band that once confusingly opined, ‘Are we human, or are we dancer?’

                The Killers smartly close Battle Born with the title track, unquestionably the highlight of the album. Flowers’ vocals truly rise to prominence here, in a perfectly controlled and impressive climax. With power chords lifted straight from The Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’, ‘Battle Born’ as a closer is betrayed by a weaker, largely ineffectual 11-track build-up.

The Killers once proudly proclaimed, ‘I got soul but I’m not a soldier’. ‘Battle Born’, despite its pop-friendly hooks and grandiose emotion, forces you to question that once irrefutable claim. Regrettably, too often the new songs fail to offer the fire, the funk, and the soul of a previously important pop-rock band. The album’s final words are ‘welcome home’, but are we ready to embrace The Killers again? This fourth offering suggests not.

5/10