Review Summary: Flowers continues down the path of folk-rock to his undeniable benefit.
It’s hard to believe it’s already been five years since The Killers released their stirring Americana folk-umentary surrounding the decay of small industrial towns in the United States.
Pressure Machine was the band’s greatest achievement quite handily, both for its musical maturity as well as for its content transcending the band’s typical glitz and glamour. A scrapped dance/synth-pop Killers album later, Brandon Flowers once again finds himself ditching the spotlight for the heartland…and it suits him.
Thrasher is a full-throttle alt-country exercise – and while it may occasionally lack the magic & mystique of
Pressure Machine, you can still feel that this is where Flowers belongs – crafting Springsteen-ian rockers and emotional, twangy ballads. Back when
Sam’s Town dropped in 2006, it was largely mocked for not even attempting to replicate the massive success of
Hot Fuss; twenty years later, it’s looking like Brandon was on the right track from the start.
Thrasher is a lot of things, but perhaps above all else it is incredibly well-produced. The songs, despite feeling like (and existing as) authentic country tunes, have that classic Flowers shine that makes it all sound incredibly fresh and accessible. There are little flourishes everywhere that enhance
Thrasher, whether it’s the breathtaking backing vocals from Kiley Phillips, Maureen Murphy, and Margo Price on ‘Plans’ or the bells and cascading choir on ‘Paradise’. Brandon is never content to settle on songs that sound plain, so in that sense,
Thrasher very much retains the typical “Killers DNA” of ensuring that each song delivers a unique and interesting punch. I mean hell, ‘The Red Ground’ is basically a full-blown Mariachi tune, and it’s one of the best songs he’s ever recorded solo.
In many ways,
Thrasher could be summarized as a more mainstream
Pressure Machine, or a more country
Sam’s Town. That’s a bit oversimplified, sure – but that’s roughly where this work resides. I hear bits of the
Pressure Machine title track on the string-swept ‘Angel’ outro, and there’s an element of
Sam’s Town’s ‘On My List’ to the grandiose refrain that towers over the wholly moving closer, ‘An American Dream’.
Thrasher resides in the same folk/country/Americana-sphere as those records, hence why it is drawing comparisons from many critics including me – but its ceiling is also capped by having to live up to those albums. It’s lacking the energetic catalyst of The Killers’ rock band backing, and while the lyrics here are often quite good (‘Angel’ is a heartbreaker), it still doesn’t quite manifest the same sense of purpose that
Pressure Machine did with its storyline and basis in post-pandemic realities. Still, even if
Thrasher comes off as something of an equidistant compromise, it’s still a wholly satisfying work that takes a blend of rural-facing genres and makes them glisten in a way only Brandon Flowers can.
Flowers’ third solo LP is easily his best one yet, with all due respect to 2010’s
Flamingo and 2015’s
The Desired Effect.
Thrasher is the sound of a man settling into the middle of his life and paying respect to his roots. There are fans of both styles of Brandon’s/The Killers’ music – from synth-driven pop-rock to Earthy folk and heartland rock – but right now it seems like the latter styles are where Flowers’ music truly comes to life. Whether it’s more solo work or a new Killers album, one can only hope that
Thrasher serves as a compass for Flowers moving forward.
