Brandon Flowers cuts his country teeth on 3rd album ‘THRASHER’
The Killers’ frontman’s third solo record is thoughtful and deliberate, but kicks like a mule where it counts.
★★★½☆
Photo: Chris Phelps
Brandon Flowers was born about sixteen miles south of Las Vegas. For much of his childhood, he lived in the small town of Nephi, Utah. This combination of small-town, bible-bashing white America and mindless, flashy indulgence of the Strip have made for some of the musician’s best material. There’s a constant fight between the dual decay and awe of Sin City, and the hard-working, God-fearing families he knew as a young boy.
THRASHER is perhaps the final form of both explosive forces meeting in a nuclear fission of social commentary and Nashville whiskey. Fans of The Killers saw Flowers embrace the country genre on their last record, Pressure Machine, which was largely about the singer’s childhood in Utah. THRASHER, his third solo album, seeks to go deeper, doubling down on the harmonica and offering tracks that feel as raw and voyeuristic as they do defiant and empowering.
Flowers’ latest opens with Does It Ever Cross Your Mind?, a midwestern gem with a steady backbeat and the cherished frontman as a full-throated Wichita lineman. It’s undeniably Springsteeny, an observation one could make for nearly every track here, but in all the best ways; a formidable return from the frontman who’s been away far too long.
There’s a cutesy homage to Flowers’ late brother-in-law on One of Us, a kind of honky tonk Stones-meets-gospel. Tiger’s Blood, one of the album’s singles, blends the whiskey-wreathed world of THRASHER with Battle Born-era Killers. Listening to a track like this, you can’t help but raise a smile, tap your feet and imagine you’re cruising down Route 66. Despite a few clumsy lyrics (“Peach fuzz boys getting hard in the corner / On Mortal Kombat”), it jabs with that signature Flowers uppercut.
The lead single, Plans, is definitely a love or hate it kind of song, further south than Pressure Machine ever dared get. It’s a bit kitsch, but stays largely on the right side of syrupy; a nostalgic piece of country-pop.
Paradise, meanwhile, is the song we all envisioned when Flowers announced he was doing a country album. It’s formulaic, a bit campfire singalong, but that’s not necessarily a sin. There’s joy in an immensely repeatable chorus and classic melody; all polished up with that Killers gleam.
There’s a moment where THRASHER gets a bit weird, devolving into puddle-deep ballads about the ills of the world. It feels like Flowers forgets he has opinions for a moment and promptly rectifies that on cuts Miss America and Angel. The first reads like a PSA on domestic abuse and toxic masculinity, set to a not-quite Petty drawl. It comes from a good place but — from the mouth of a successful white male — it doesn’t land with the same authenticity a song like this demands.
Angel, meanwhile, is sonically a neat little piece (about as Springsteen as I’ve heard someone get, with a melody right out of Born in the USA’s Downbound Train), but a lyrical dumpster fire. It tells the story of a black man who falls in love with a white woman (“Chocolate and vanilla swirls / There’s gonna be a little girl”), joins the military and finds out his partner has found someone else. The titular Angel falls foul as the drug scene and bloody revenge ensue. What Flowers was aiming for, only God knows, but it’s a misfire that almost lands in the realm of flat-out offensive.
Praise the good lord then for The Red Ground, a Mariarchi stereotype and Bond theme hybrid that makes for one of the most interesting songs on here. You can hear the influences from latter-day Killers albums Imploding the Mirage and Pressure Machine.
In A Heartbeat is gut-punching enough; before we move into the climax of the set: An American Dream. It’s a fitting end to Flowers’ latest, mimicking the country-tinged rock and proto-gospel of Sam’s Town. For the second time on this record, Flowers wants to be taken back home, yearning for the ‘gold and silver’ of his birthplace against the backdrop of a 2026 Neil Young track, full of hollow wonder and fleeting flashiness (Tesla even gets a mention).
It portrays America as a land obsessed with excess and sex, uncertain of where it’s headed. But it’s clear Flowers still holds a deep, protective love for the country. The result is one of the album’s best, though I fear it’s not the sort of track that would translate overly well to a live setting.
THRASHER touches on a surprising amount of sounds and themes for what is unquestionably a true country record. For the most part, Flowers lands his blows, delivering the quiet rage of small-town, working-class America masterfully. There are a few quite incredible misses, but Flowers has the self-determination to see himself through as the newfound honky tonk saviour. Diehard fans of his prior solo albums, Flamingo and The Desired Effect, may find little to love in THRASHER but, for the patient and the soulful, Flowers offers up something truly divine.
THRASHER is out now via Island Records.
