The Killers
Battle Born

Four years. That's how long it took to have a new album from the biggest pop-rock band on the planet, one of the most anticipated releases of the year. But where were we?

We were at the pop and glitz of "Day & Age" and the Hamlet-like question "Are we human or are we dancer?". Now the Killers go back to their roots, their homeland, their land, or rather, the desert, a place very dear to the band and to Brandon Flowers, who claims it as a source of great inspiration for his lyrics. "Battle Born", after all, is nothing more than the inscription, the motto, on their State's flag, Nevada.

For the occasion, the album was entrusted to a super-production signed by five giants of the field (Steve Lillywhite, Damian Taylor, Brendan O'Brien, Stuart Price, Daniel Lanois). The risk, as often happens in these cases, was to have a series of songs disconnected from each other but the risk was averted. The album is a real album and is 100% Killers. This is certainly a point in their favor.

But "Battle Born" is indeed a new beginning for the Las Vegas band that returns to embracing guitars like never before, while the influence of Springsteen, already sighted in the past, becomes clearer and clearer. It may not be their best album, but it's enough to satisfy the fans who've been waiting for them for nearly five years.

Key tracks: "Flesh And Bone", "Runaways", "Here With Me", "Miss Atomic Bomb", "Battle Born".

Worth noting in the deluxe edition is the presence of two additional unreleased tracks, "Carry Me Home" and "Prize Fighter", better than many songs on the album, and a questionable remix of "Flesh And Bone".