The Killers Scrap New Album Halfway Through Recording

The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers has revealed that the band scrapped a planned new album, citing influences such as New Order and Depeche Mode and going on to say that their new music didn’t feel “authentic”.

“It just didn’t feel authentic. It felt like we were forcing something,” Flowers said in a new interview with The Sun.

Discussing their more electronic influences, Flowers continued, “We love synth music; it’s a part of our DNA, and there’s been great contributions from us in that genre.

“And man, we love New Order and Depeche Mode, so it’s not a slight. It just doesn’t feel right for us at this moment.”

This isn’t the first time that Brandon Flowers has told a news publication that he’s scrapped a new Killers album, with the singer reportedly ditching a new album halfway through recording earlier this year.

“Halfway through recording, I realised, ‘I can’t do this,’” Flowers told The Times. “This isn’t the kind of record… I think this will be the… I don’t think you’ll see us making this type of music anymore.”

He added, “This is the crisis I’m in. The Killers are my identity, and our songs fill the seats, but I’m more fulfilled making music like [2021 album] Pressure Machine.”

The Killers returned to Australia in November 2022. The highly anticipated tour, initially announced for the tail end of 2020, was extended to include Barossa Valley, Geelong, and Hunter Valley for a special run of A Day On The Green shows.

In Brisbane, The Music’s reviewer Roshan Clerke compared the grandiosity and yearning of the band’s live show to a famous figure from New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen, who The Killers have always looked up to. Clerke also praised the band’s “celestial rock and roll,” which is how Brandon Flowers liked to describe the band’s newest tunes. You can read The Music’s live review here.

Last year, Australian singer Meg Washington surprise-released a Hot Fuss cover album, putting a minimalist spin on The Killers classics, including Somebody Told Me and Mr Brightside.

“I've always loved this album,” Washington explained. “To me, it seems to capture the sound of yearning, the glamour and trash of what it feels like to be young, the intoxicating web of the scene, the madness of passion-hymns of electricity, of youth-impossibly delivered with both an ironic sneer and gothic sincerity.”

The Killers just released their Greatest Hits album, Rebel Diamonds. You can check out one of the new songs on the album, Spirit, below and listen to the album here.