Battle Born (album)

## ***Battle Born***

***Battle Born*** is the fourth studio album by American rock band The Killers, released in the United Kingdom on September 17, 2012, by Vertigo Records and in the United States the following day by Island Records. The phrase "Battle Born" appears on the state flag of Nevada and is the name of the recording studio owned by the band, where the majority of the album was recorded.

Recorded following an extended hiatus, the band worked with five producers during the recording of the album: Steve Lillywhite, Damian Taylor, Brendan O'Brien, Stuart Price, and Daniel Lanois. In 2015, Flowers told *NME* it "wasn't good enough" and admitted they were "a little bit aimless" when creating it.

## Synopsis

The Las Vegas Anglophiles headed by Brandon Flowers return with a vengeance on *Battle Born*. With songs that recall the glamour and glitter of their synth-dappled debut—but with the epic, organic quality that made the follow-ups *Sam's Town* and *Day & Age* so successful—The Killers have crafted something truly unique. "Flesh and Bone" is a pulsating, triumphant opening cut set to a mixture of dance-floor thump and guitar. "Runaways" is something else: a huge anthem that sounds like it was recorded by the combined forces of '80s-era Tom Petty and David Bowie. All in all, this is gigantic, cry-your-eyes-out alt-pop with a real soul peeping out from under the synth pulses and waves of post-production.

## Release

On June 7, 2012, the Killers released a trailer for *Battle Born*. The track listing was announced on August 16. The album's first single was "Runaways," which received its first radio play on July 10. The single was leaked on Tumblr only hours before its official radio preview. *Battle Born* was released on September 17, 2012, in the United Kingdom and on September 18 in the United States. A week later, on September 25, the album was released as a vinyl disc.

## Critical reception

The record received generally positive reviews by contemporary music critics. On Metacritic, a review aggregator site that compiles reviews from mainstream publications and assigns a weighted average score out of 100, *Battle Born* received a score of 64 that was based on 27 critic reviews. AnyDecentMusic? compiled 29 reviews and gave the album a score of 6.0 out of 10. *Under the Radar*'s Austin Saalman retrospectively argued, "it remains a relevant and masterfully-crafted rock album deserving of at least a listen or two."

Stephen Erlewine from AllMusic stated, "even if the raw materials may not be quite as compelling as their earliest singles, the overall craft on *Battle Born* is more appealing. And if age has changed the Killers attack, it has done not a thing for Brandon Flowers as a lyricist, who remains committed to gobsmacking poetry and allusions, and cracked observations that somehow sound endearing when encased in the well-lubricated machinery of *Battle Born*." Evan Sawdey of *PopMatters* called it their "blandest, most forgettable, and most generic-sounding album in the group's discography." While he acknowledged the various producers and appeal of some songs, he believed that sonically, the album offered nothing new. Jon Dolan of *Rolling Stone* penned, "might be their wildest neon-Springsteen fever dream yet." *The Guardian*'s Kate Mossman opined, "you struggle to find the energy till the third or fourth listen, when Heart of a Girl (co-written with Daniel Lanois) and From Here on Out (which sounds just like the Eagles) reveal themselves to be the sweetest, most sincere explorations of a kind of US rock that will always raise hairs on the necks of those who like this sort of thing." Hermione Hoby of *The Observer* remarked, "the harder they strain for grandiloquence, the more ridiculous the Killers sound." *Slant Magazine*'s Eric Henderson was equally unimpressed, writing, "Forced to contend with a more self-servingly epic backdrop, Flowers's limited vocal delivery sounds increasingly taxed and tremulous."

Barry Walters of *Spin* was more positive, calling it "a full-on band opus," where the band "confront[s] their personal and professional doubts, and achieve an unmistakable, unrelenting us-against-them cohesion." Chris Bosman of *Consequence* described it as "fine. It's certainly not great," and "it never reaches that special place that the band accidentally trips into with their best material." While he contended that some songs were memorable ("Runaways" and "Here With Me"), he concluded that "you'll remember the songs these highlights remind you of." Tom Hocknell of *BBC* agreed that it lacked "great tunes," but called it "a belter, an album made for bedrooms, stadiums and old-school denim jacket patches alike." *Idolator* felt the lyrics were the weakest part on the album, which "push[es] crass clichés of an American life that lead singer Brandon Flowers imagines us living" and riddled with "imagery of a white bread American fantasy."

Conversely, Neil McCormick of *The Telegraph* assessed, "It is the intensity with which Flowers sings about dark emotions that, one suspects, will keep the Killers off the campaign trail. There is something deeply weird about his world view that is magnified by the high-strung intensity of his band's playing." Kyle Anderson, writing for *Entertainment Weekly*, more positively reviewed, "does eventually get winded, especially when the melodies don't match Flowers' lofty reach. But those stumbles fit the band's narrative; not every scrappy dark horse can earn the top spot on the podium. Just as the London Games were about the journey and the effort, *Battle Born* is a testament to spirit and sheer will. It's an album about injecting a little majesty into the mundane and holding your head high—even if sometimes you go home with a silver." *Paste* magazine, comparing it to the rest of their discography, believed it to venture "deeper into their distinctive traits and away from the compromises with radio or current trends." He continued, "It's also their most consistent record since their debut" and "will live up to everything you wish of it."

## Track listing

* The Killers (music)
* The Killers (music)
* Taylor
* Jacques Lu Cont
* Vannucci

* Lanois
* The Killers (music)
* Lillywhite
* Taylor
* Michel

## References

1. ↑ "The Killers, 'Battle Born': Track-By-Track Review". *Billboard*. September 17, 2012.
2. ↑ Britton, Luke (May 6, 2015). "Brandon Flowers Says The Killers Will Record New Album Because Last One 'Wasn't Good Enough'". *NME*.
3. ↑ "Battle Born | Metacritic"
4. ↑ Saalman, Austin (September 19, 2022). "The Killers – Reflecting on the 10th Anniversary of “Battle Born”". *Under the Radar*.
5. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen (September 17, 2012). "Battle Born Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine". *AllMusic*.
6. ↑ Sawdey, Evan (September 23, 2012). "The Killers: Battle Born". *PopMatters*.
7. ↑ Dolan, Jon (September 18, 2012). "Battle Born". *Rolling Stone*.
8. ↑ Mossman, Kate (September 13, 2012). "The Killers: Battle Born – Review". *The Guardian*.
9. ↑ Hoby, Hermione (September 16, 2012). "The Killers: Battle Born – Review". *The Guardian*.
10. ↑ Henderson, Eric (September 17, 2012). "Review: The Killers, *Battle Born*". *Slant Magazine*.
11. ↑ Walters, Barry (September 17, 2012). "The Killers, 'Battle Born' (Vertigo/Island)". *Spin*.
12. ↑ Bosman, Chris (September 19, 2012). "Album Review: The Killers – Battle Born". *Consequence*.
13. ↑ Hocknell, Tom (September 14, 2012). "The Killers *Battle Born* Review". *BBC*.
14. ↑ Sears, Stephen (September 18, 2012). "The Killers' 'Battle Born': Album Review". *Idolator*.
15. ↑ McCormick, Neil (September 13, 2012). "The Killers, Battle Born, CD Review". *The Telegraph*.
16. ↑ Anderson, Kyle (September 19, 2012). "Battle Born - Review". *Entertainment Weekly*.
17. ↑ Weiss, Dan (September 19, 2012). "The Killers: *Battle Born*". *Paste*.

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