Imploding the Mirage (album)

## **Singles from *Imploding the Mirage***

1. "Caution"
Released: March 12, 2020
2. "My Own Soul's Warning"
Released: June 17, 2020
3. "Blowback"
Released: August 21, 2020
4. "C'est La Vie"
Released: February 8, 2021

***Imploding the Mirage*** is the sixth studio album by The Killers, released through Island Records on August 21, 2020. Brandon Flowers said of the title, "We were accustomed to landmarks of our life being imploded, places that our grandparents used to work or that we would go get breakfast on Christmas morning. They implode things in Las Vegas. So I used that analogy for my move out of Las Vegas. I think it's about growing up, about realizing what's important in your life. And instead of replacing it with another mirage or another facade, replacing it with something eternal and real."

Initially the band was set for an international tour in late Spring, though because of the global pandemic, had to reschedule to 2022.

## Synopsis

As The Killers began work on their sixth full-length, Brandon Flowers had a single visual in mind: the album's eventual cover art, illustrator Thomas Blackshear's Dance of the Wind and Storm. "We wanted to make sure that the songs fit underneath the banner of what that image was saying,” Flowers tells Apple Music of the drawing, which he hung on the wall of the studio. "Blackshear typically does Western landscapes, or he does spiritual art. But on this particular one he combined them, and that's exactly what I wanted to capture. Songs that didn't fit, they had to get cut. We'd never done anything like that, but it ended up being a real beacon for us."

As intended, *Imploding the Mirage* evokes the scale and natural majesty of the American West, like The E Street Band playing Monument Valley. And at its heart are a series of synth-lined, often Springsteenian tales of love and salvation, inspired by Flowers' recent move from Las Vegas to Utah—and the effect it had on his wife's mental health. ("Las Vegas is a tainted and haunted place," he says. "Talk about a clean slate.") It's the band's first LP without founding guitarist Dave Keuning, whose departure made space for a list of collaborators that includes k.d. lang, Weyes Blood, The War on Drugs' Adam Granduciel, Foxygen's Jonathan Rado, and Lindsey Buckingham. It's also meant to be a companion to 2017's unabashedly grand *Wonderful Wonderful*. "I'm very interested in the optimistic side of things," Flowers says. "I was brought up to have that kind of a perspective, and I think you hear it in the songs: It feels triumphant, like there are angels present."

## Background

In a review of the band's album, Flowers stated:

> "We were trying to find our footing again [...] I think it was an exciting prospect for Jonathan Rado and Shawn Everett. They teamed up on Mirage. They hadn't worked with a band this big before, and it was fun for them. We were thinking, "Let's write Killers-esque songs.” We pushed it pretty hard, but we definitely had that stadium setting in mind. It sounds like, "Oh, you just wanted to make a stadium record…” It's not that easy. It needs to be transcendent, and it needs to still be able to reach people. It's a big task, really. We naturally write bigger songs. It's a part of my voice, and it's a part of the way that Ronnie plays, and it's a part of where we're from. So we've never seen it as something to scoff at."
>
>
>

"My Own Soul's Warning" was the last song they wrote for the record.

Ronnie Vannucci Jr. remarked to *The Times* of the deep lyrical subjects, "I went, 'OK, now we're talking!' I hate hearing music that means nothing, so I really got behind [Flowers]. These are real problems not enough people talk about."

## Track listing

All tracks are produced by Jonathan Rado and Shawn Everett, except where noted.

* Rado
* Everett
* Cameron
* Guy Wood
* Robert Mellin
* Dino Geangelo
* Stoermer
* Stoermer
* Vannucci
* Cameron
* Everett
* Rado
* Everett
* Rado
* Vannucci

## References

1. ↑ Rolli, Bryan (August 19, 2020). "The Killers' Brandon Flowers Talks New Album 'Imploding The Mirage' and His Quest for Eternity". *Forbes*.
2. ↑ Kinane, Ruth (August 20, 2020). "Brandon Flowers says the Killers' new album Imploding the Mirage is 'celestial rock & roll'". *EW"'.*
3. ↑ Hyden, Steven (August 12, 2021). "Brandon Flowers Reviews Every Album By The Killers". *Uproxx*.
4. ↑ Dean, Jonathan (April 19, 2020). "Exclusive interview: Brandon Flowers of the Killers on the band’s new album Imploding the Mirage, Glastonbury and his Mormon faith". *The Times*.