After a 4-year wait for new music, The Killers returned last year with Imploding The Mirage. But that time in lockdown during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be fruitful for the band. The Killers announced that they are releasing new album, Pressure Machine, on August 13 via Island Records. The last Killers record delved into frontman Brandon Flowers setting his roots down in Las Vegas after moving from Utah. Pressure Machine will go back to Flowers’ childhood in Nephi, Utah.
“I discovered this grief that I hadn’t dealt with. Many memories of my time in Nephi are tender. But the ones tied to fear or great sadness were emotionally charged,” says Flowers in a press release. “I’ve got more understanding now than when we started the band, and hopefully I was able to do justice to these stories and these lives in this little town that I grew up in.” Flowers began writing the album during the pandemic, embracing the “first time in a long time that [he] was faced with silence.” He adds, “Out of that silence this record began to bloom, full of songs that would have otherwise been too quiet and drowned out by the noise of typical Killers records.”
When The Killers make hyper-specific albums about home, it tends to works for them. Just look at Sam’s Town, a record about Las Vegas that wasn’t appreciated enough at the time, but holds some of the band’s songs that are now considered beloved classics—including “When You Were Young” and “Bones.” And, perhaps not intentional, but the black-and-white album art for Pressure Machine definitely feels reminiscent of the 2006 record. Is this The Killers’ way of teasing a return to that nostalgic era Though we don’t have a lead single off the forthcoming record which would give us proper glimpse at what’s to come, the band hasreleased a 1-minute trailer for the album.