14. Imploding the Mirage / The Killers

 

Brandon Flowers met the moment in 2020.  He rolled the dice with earnest arena rock anthems and raised spirits from the desert dust.  “My Own Soul’s Warning” throttles forward with guitars and keyboards lifted from The War on Drugs, Arcade Fire, and The Boss, reaching for the ultimate human connection: I just wanted to get back to where you are!  His nights are cut up like a knife, but he wakes up each day ready to sing it out, understanding there are few frontmen able to fill a massive bill, let alone offer big-tent rock as a type of redemption.

It is not a stretch to call this a fully fleshed out Mormon rock album.  Using recognizable themes and language, Flowers is Spirit drenched and available for transformation, seeking repentance (“My Own Soul’s Warning”), fidelity in marriage (“Dying Breed”), and personal transcendence (“Fire in Bone”).  His sincerity is authentic and rings with the faith’s best universalist echoes.  It should light a fire in the hardest hearts, dark nights and dustbowls be damned.

I have seen The Killers live in New York City (Hot Fuss) and Las Vegas (Wonderful Wonderful) and the band is better and bigger deep into its life.  The guests on Imploding the Mirage are also significant in the wake of longtime guitarist Dave Kuenig’s open-ended departure.  Adam Granduciel lends guitars and keys to the breezy “Blowback,” k.d. lang stretches out vocal vistas on “Lightning Fields,” and Weyes Blood adds strange urgency to “My God.”  But the best moment belongs to Lindsay Buckingham, the recently fired Fleetwood Mac legend and notable curmudgeon.  When his circling guitar solo chases the wind on the sky-scraping "Caution," it is the kind of revivalist rock ecstasy that Flowers was born to chase too.