Album Club Selection #9: The Killers - Pressure Machine

Quiet Town popped up on the radio while I was driving. It felt so good...

Had to come back and share this.

So, I like the Killers and I'd opine, based on my previous experience of their work, this is not a typical Killers' albums.

I liked it, obviously a very personal retrospective around small town America (or 'Murica).

I guess small town life is similar all over (without the guns and weird version of Christian fundamentalism) so elements of this chimed.

I liked it.

Recent long drives gave me the opportunity to give this repeated listens. Previously been a bit meh about The Killers, didn’t particularly enjoy the Glastonbury set I saw on TV in 2019, and the collaboration with our man left me cold. However……

This is rather good. Saw the comments re Nebraska above, and while I can see where that’s coming from lyrically, I was hearing a cleaned up, slick and glossy Gaslight Anthem/Brian Fallon, with a dash of U2-lite here and there perhaps? Thought the between track recordings were well used too. Vocally lacked substance and grit to suit the subject matter maybe, but that’s probably down to my personal taste, and yeah a bit wordy in places but all in all a good listen and worth revisiting.

Thanks @berlintramp !

I don't think there's any harm in dissenting opinions on the albums, but I'm glad you ended up enjoying this one.

I took a chance on a Killers album many years back, can't remember which, and was unimpressed. So I was prepared to dislike this one and back away from the discussion. Don't want to piss on someone else's enthusiasm. But this was a real surprise. Not 10 out of 10, but an enjoyable experience. I'll listen to it again, that's for sure. Thanks, @berlintramp.

The Killers are the one 'recent' or current band I actually follow and seek out new releases on a 'day of' basis, like I do with Bruce.

Bruce has always been mentioned as an influence, either from reviews or by Brandon Flowers himself. To be honest, I've never really heard it... until this record. Before this, I hear the Bruce influence via osmosis... The Killers often sound like a dialled down version of Meat Loaf / Jim Steinman. Which means, the Bruce that JS amped up to a ridiculous almost cartoonist level, is tempered back down by The Killers. Take the song 'A Dustland Fairytale' as an example... it's Bruce themes circa BTR thru to The River, but somehow heading towards Meat Loaf bombast without tipping over.

Until this album... this, for mine, is where you can mount a case for The Killers sounding like Bruce. The best of this album is like a Nebraska track, dressed in ways Bruce never imagined.... the lesser songs, like a more opulent and ultimately dull and derivative version of songs on either Nebraska or GOTJ.

At their best, The Killers put Queen, U2, Meat Loaf, a dash of Bruce, and a sprinkling of new wave guitar and keyboard music into a blender, and come up with something brilliant. Sam's Town is other world amazing... for mine, their masterpiece. Day and Age is like a late 70's / early 80's radio station, as they wear each influence on their sleeve in turn to create a fun whole. This album has it's in the gut moments, where Brandon's personal soul pushes through, but at other times it sounds like Bruce wannabe... without, at least, sounding also like a someone or something else wannabe also.

Concerning the band name - it has nothing to do with murder or murderers. It's taken from the bass drum of a fictitious band in New Order's video for Crystal.

I might have never discovered The Killers if Bruce hadn't done "Dustland" with them. Liking that, I got interested in them, and though I haven't explored all of their output, what I have found, I really liked.

The live performances of Pressure Machine songs on CBS mornings - or whatever that was on the net - are really even better that the album recordings. I agree sometimes there are too many words for the line they are supposed to fit in, but that is a criticism I have levelled at Bruce quite a lot of times. (He usually irons it out in his live performances).

Now I am happy to have discovered a new group with promise - and I don't feel quite as old fashioned anymore when I can only answer to inquiries which band I like with: Just Bruce.

- the name - who would call themselves 'The Killers', it just made me think of very loud, possibly heavy metal music which I just don't like at all.

Ann, when I tell people I went to Minneapolis with my daughter to see them. All my friends said the same thing. "We know you love Heavy Metal, but why go all the way to Minnesota" My daughter loves her music and I love mine, but some cross paths. The Killers, Bruce, The National to name a few.

I have to confess to never having listened to a Killers album until this afternoon. My excuses

- the name - who would call themselves 'The Killers', it just made me think of very loud, possibly heavy metal music which I just don't like at all.

- my son likes them! We don't see eye to eye much on music (apart from Mr Springsteen, of course) so see above for what I expected.

- someone for whom I have no respect and have almost nothing in common was always going on about them and, in particular, Mr Flowers. If she likes them, how the hell can I?

However, I gave this album my first listen this afternoon and it was not at all what I expected. I possibly should have trusted @berlintramp rather more! I really enjoyed the little write ups which featured on Apple music about each song and how the album came to be written. I liked the songs, the lyrics are very good, although I don't find his voice to be that strong. I also felt some of the lyrics were a bit clumsy - trying to get too many words into a passage of music. However, I liked it enough to give it another listen.

One of the few post-2000 bands I listen to frequently.

I really like Flowers' voice, and for me, most of what I take notice of are the lyrics. Of any album.

I have a small complaint, or perhaps an unfair prejudice... Flowers is trying too hard to sound organic, and in that aspect sounds a bit forced to my ears. Is it fair to say that the songs are great, but I can't feel his soul as he is singing? I can't bond with him that well, he cant make me as emotional as he could have..

I have, I think, three Killers' albums.

Sam's Town, Hot Fuss and the one with A Dustland Fairytale on it.

They're a band that's never totally grabbed me though I like some of their stuff well enough.

Looking forward to diving head first into this one.

This album hit me right between the eyes.

You see, I lived in Utah for 5 years, and he captures the atmosphere so perfectly - all the "holier than thou" things up front and the agony and desperation that are kept hidden.

You can find a lot of people in these godforsaken (ha!) little towns who will tell you what a great place they are to raise their kids - and still things go off the rails so often, there is much quiet misery, but no one dares to openly cut free from this opressive church and its teachings. People willingly keep out information, forbid certain teachings in school and are fodder for the great Trump machine.

The point to "become an apostate" as they so quaintly put it, used to be alcohol, now it's opioids. It just means that people look for a way out, regardless the means. And still "families are tight, good people, they still don't deadbolt their doors at night". They will cling to this way of life that doesn't satisfy them, but they are told it is the good life.

I see the same things in the Catholic church - people suffer horribly because of the sexual scandals, but they are unable to look at the teachings of the church and recognize that it is flawed right from the bottom up, religious doctrine and all (I hope I'm not offending anyone here).

Musically, the Killers have grown on me a lot - slight occasional awkwardness aside. West Hills and Quiet Town are just great, and I really like "Terrible Thing".

What made me wonder, though - Brandon Flowers grew up in Nephi (terrible dump), he has fond memories of the place and is drawn back to it

("And every time I see my parents in the prime of their lives

Offering their son the the kind of love he could never put down

Well, part of me is still that stainless kid

Lucky")

From what I could gather, he still lives in Utah, in spite of having understood the mechanisms of Mormon life

(The kingdom of God, it's a pressure machine, every step gotta keep it clean)

even though he moved to Park City which is not quite as narrow minded and claustrophobic as most of the rest.

Still...

This is my favorite lyric. It captures the look on that poor woman's face so perfectly..

I asked if she wanted me to take him in

She laughed it off like lemonade

I have never really listened to anything by The Killers, although my son really likes them and has tickets (postponed a few times!) to see them this year.

I will give it a go, hopefully later today, but if it comes anywhere close to young Sam, I will be happy!

My first exposure to The Killers was accidentally catching them do When You Were Young on a late-night talk show. I thought the performance was fantastic and sought out their music. I've loved the band, but not without my complaints. Same with Brandon Flowers' writing - I think he's a great writer, but he does have a tendency to get a bit overwrought and he uses awkward phrases sometimes when I think he is trying to sound earthy and real. Small complaints, as I enjoy almost all of their work.

This album is their masterpiece, so far. Flowers is till guilty of the occasional awkward phrasing - the line about our "local hero sports bar" is something I don't think a person would say, and I think he considers it a Springsteenesque lyric. Small complaints, because this album is brilliant. There's not a song on it I don't love, the atmosphere is perfectly rendered (that's helped by the brilliant use of the spoken vignettes between tracks), and comes across very much like an emotional tour of his small Utah town.

As far as recent records that are meant to evoke a place I've never been, I put this up there with Sam Fender's Seventeen Going Under.

Quiet Town is the standout track, but it's a standout among standouts.

Great album, I play the hell out of it. Quiet Town is my favorite.

After one listen, a pleasantly depressing album. Quiet Town is very nice, with a nice hook, lovely harmonica. Desperate Things is very graphic, story-wise. Love it. Maybe Flowers' singing should have been even more desolate to fit the grim stories?

The Getting By opens like Living Next Door To Alice?

I need some more time with the album, but this is better than I remember them. Maybe not better, but more my style.