Brandon Flowers of The Killers has announced his upcoming third solo album, THRASHER, which will be released on August 21 through Island Records. The announcement also arrives with the release of the album’s first single, “Plans,” along with a new performance video, “Plans (Live From Historic RCA Studio A).”
THRASHER marks Flowers’ first solo album in more than a decade, following 2015’s The Desired Effect. The album was recorded in Nashville at Historic RCA Studio A with longtime producers Shawn Everett and Jonathan Rado. The record also features several major Nashville musicians, including guitarist David Rawlings, pedal steel player Bruce Bouton and harmonica player Charlie McCoy, giving the project a roots-driven American feeling that is different from the stadium-sized sound fans usually connect to The Killers.
“Plans” introduces the album through a warm and reflective sound that leans into country, folk and heartland rock rather than the brighter synth-rock energy of Flowers’ main band. The song moves like a memory, with the narrator looking back at younger dreams and wondering how much of that old innocence is still possible. Using images of melted snow, classroom windows, desert wind and a road headed south, Flowers turns the song into a story about growing up, chasing something larger and feeling the pressure of ambition drown out the “plans I drew up years ago.”
That idea also fits the album’s larger setting, as THRASHER is rooted in Flowers’ childhood years in Nephi, Utah. The press material describes the album as his most personal and vulnerable songwriting yet, and “Plans” proves that by making the big American road song feel less like escape and more like someone trying to understand the life they imagined for themselves.
The video keeps that feeling simple and direct, showing Flowers performing the song live from Nashville’s Historic RCA Studio A, the same place where THRASHER was made. Instead of building the visual around a large storyline, the performance setting lets the song’s emotion sit at the center, making the track feel intimate and worn-in.
According to mxdwn, Brandon Flowers is not only stepping out as the frontman of The Killers, but also showing himself as an artist willing to take part in meaningful collaborative performances, using his appearance with Dawes at A Concert For Altadena to support people affected by the Eaton Fire while bringing the emotional power of “When You Were Young” into a benefit setting.
THRASHER tracklist:
- “Does It Ever Cross Your Mind?”
- “One of Us”
- “Tiger’s Blood”
- “Plans”
- “Paradise”
- “Miss America”
- “Angel”
- “The Red Ground”
- “In A Heartbeat”
- “An American Dream”
Flowers will also support the album with a September and October tour across North America, the UK and Ireland, with stops including Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, Brooklyn, Toronto, Las Vegas, London and Dublin.
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