helming a full-on country album is not a hugely surprising prospect.
themselves have flirted with country imagery and aesthetics ever since their inception. From the cowboy attire of the ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’ music video to the wistful heartland rock that reverberated throughout the walls of , the influence of country has always been there, lying dormant in their DNA. Even Flowers’ lyricism on tracks like ‘Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine’ featured the kind of lurid, late-night confessions you’d expect on ‘Nebraska’. Their most recent record – the wonderful late-career pivot ‘Pressure Machine’ – orbited a mystical and mythical Americana sound, so now feels like the perfect time for Flowers to explore the genre.
The issue with Flowers’ previous solo output is clear: there’s little to truly differentiate it from his work with The Killers. His 2010 debut ‘Flamingo’ felt like a baffling retread of the Las Vegas group’s catalogue, while its follow-up, ‘The Desired Effect’, tapped into the same 80s pop and indie influences that made ‘Hot Fuss’ such an earth-shattering success. Recorded at in Nashville last year, ‘Thrasher’ is his first genuinely distinct solo effort, fully embracing the musicality of country with tremendous results.
On lead single ‘Plans’, Flowers displays an understated warmth and tenderness rarely heard on his songs, and it’s all underscored by an exquisite assortment of strings, pedal steel and harmonica. When you factor in the track’s wistful lyrics, it’s difficult to recall a more beautifully melancholic offering from The Killers frontman: “The pond is fed by July melted snow / That we watched fall from January windows / In our homeroom class / Teacher wondering how the hell they wound up here / So far from the plans they drew up years ago.”
If this does sound a little sombre, fear not, as much of the material here is a flat-out romp, as signalled by the breezy opener ‘Does It Ever Cross Your Mind?’ and ‘Paradise’, the latter of which finds Flowers in a particularly playful mood. While the song draws on his experience working in casinos, it’s tempting to also read its lyrics as an admission he may be approaching the final stretch in his career: “I don’t pull ‘em round as quickly as I used to / This chasing flashy cars is a young man’s game.”
The production throughout is marvellous, full of the type of lavish flourishes that suggest an artist completely infatuated with country music and its history. This is felt most keenly on the surreal genius of epic closer ‘An American Dream’, where Flowers – rather audaciously – imagines himself being “picked up by Elvis in a Tesla Model X.” The dream of the title is both literal and metaphysical. One moment he’s at a phone booth eager to call his mother, only to have forgotten that she passed away some time ago, and the next he’s talking with Elvis, posing the million-dollar question: was it all worth it?
‘Tiger’s Blood’ is perhaps the closest ‘Thrasher’ ever gets to something that would slot comfortably on a Killers record, but its gorgeous instrumentation and glorious crescendo make it another enthralling highlight. Similarly, the opening notes of ‘Angel’ sound eerily close to Springsteen’s ‘The River’, but that’s soon forgotten about once you let that luscious coda wash over you.
‘Thrasher’ pulls off the impressive trick of being both remarkably emotional and poignant and also heaps of fun. More importantly, it sees Flowers using the genre of country to reflect on his own past, while questioning what may come next. If this does turn out to be his final solo outing, it feels like the perfect way to leave things.
8/10