New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The
Killers will release their seventh studio album, entitled Pressure Machine, on Island Records on August 13, 2021. The album was co-produced by the band, Shawn Everett, and Jonathan Rado (of Foxygen), all of whom worked together on The Killers' critically-acclaimed album Imploding The Mirage, released last year.
When the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the promotional run and worldwide tour for The Killers' majestic, critically-acclaimed 2020 album Imploding the Mirage, "everything came to this grinding halt," says frontman
Brandon Flowers. "And it was the first time in a long time for me that I was faced with silence. And out of that silence this record began to bloom, full of songs that would have otherwise been too quiet and drowned out by the noise of typical
Killers records." Indeed, for the first time since 2004, the relentless momentum and pressures of being in a globally-renowned, stadium-shaking band stopped. Enter Pressure Machine: a view into the everyday realities of a small American town with a stark, tough beauty, and The Killers' most restrained and resonant album yet. A video from
Brandon about Pressure Machine can be seen now via Apple Music.
A quieter, character-study-driven album, Pressure Machine lives squarely in Flowers' hometown of Nephi, Utah, a close-knit community of 5300 people with no traffic lights, a rubber plant, wheat fields, and the West Hills. Nephi is the place Flowers spent his formative years (10-16), saying "had it not been for advancements in the automotive industry, Nephi in the 90s could have been the 1950s." The album's songs are based on the memories and stories of people that impacted him growing up, interspersed with commentary from current Nephi locals about their town. "We were discussing [Brandon] moving to Nephi as a kid and being stuck in the middle of nowhere," says the band's drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. "And during Covid-19, it started to feel like we were all in the middle of nowhere." Concurs Flowers, "I discovered this grief that I hadn't dealt with," he says, "many memories of my time in Nephi are tender. But the ones tied to fear or great sadness were emotionally charged. I've got more understanding now than when we started the band, and hopefully I was able to do justice to these stories and these lives in this little town that I grew up in."
The resulting record is an aural document of growing up - and living - in the American Southwest, told from a myriad of perspectives. For the first time in his life, Flowers had complete lyrics before a note of music was put to tape. No stranger to inhabiting different characters in songs, on Pressure Machine he steps into the shoes of some of the people whose lives he watched unfold as a teen. The album weaves the threads of Flowers' signature lyricism throughout his career into a perfect whole culminating in the most elegant album The
Killers have ever made.
Through its characters and also its title, the album squares up to the unbending pressure of the American dream compounded by religious disenchantment. A born optimist, moments of beauty inevitably shine out of the grief of Flowers's songs: the healing arrival of summer, the first crop of hay, sweeter skies. Pressure Machine's stories detail the real life personal battles, overwhelming regrets, local tragedies, and the opioid epidemic that hit Flowers' hometown, as well as every hometown in America. Flowers sings about the choices people make, for better and for worse, and the consequences of those choices; the ones who were left behind, and the ones that can't be forgotten.
Pressure Machine's album cover image was shot on the highway just outside Nephi, taken as photographer Wes Johnson passed a roadside inspirational display set up by a local Baptist church. Johnson took dozens of incredible images of Flowers' hometown throughout the early part of 2021, many of which are featured in the album's packaging for the physical edition.
The
Killers will be heading back to the road to celebrate both Pressure Machine and Imploding The Mirage, along with their much-loved catalogue of global hits, in 2022. Tickets for these shows go on sale on Friday, July 23rd, at 10 am local time via the band's website.
New Tour dates:
Fri August 19, 2022 - Vancouver BC (Rogers Arena)
Sat August 20, 2022 - Seattle WA (Climate Pledge Arena)
Sun August 21, 2022 - Portland OR (Moda Center)
Tues August 23, 2022 - San Francisco CA (Chase Center)
Wed August 24, 2022 - San
Diego CA (Pechanga Arena)
Fri August 26, 2022 - Las
Vegas NV (T-Mobile Arena)
Sat August 27, 2022 - Los Angeles CA (Banc of California Stadium)
Tues August 30, 2022 Salt Lake City UT (Vivint Arena)
Wed August 31, 2022 Denver CO (Ball Arena)
Thurs
September 8, 2022
Houston TX (Toyota Center)
Fri
September 9, 2022 Austin TX (Moody Center)
Sat
September 10, 2022 - Fort Worth TX (Dickies Arena)
Tues
September 13, 2022 - Miami FL (FTX Arena)
Wed
September 14, 2022 - Orlando FL (Amway Center)
Fri
September 16, 2022 - Atlanta GA
State (Farm Arena)
Sat
September 17, 2022 - Nashville TN (Bridgestone Arena)
Sun
September 18, 2022 - St. Louis MO (Chaifetz Arena)
Tues
September 20, 2022 - St. Paul MN (Xcel
Energy Center)
Wed
September 21, 2022 -
Chicago IL (United Center)
Fri
September 23, 2022 - Toronto ON (Scotiabank Arena)
Sat
September 24, 2022 - Montreal QC (Bell Centre)
Sun
September 25, 2022 -
Verona NY (Turning Stone Event Center)
Thurs
September 29, 2022 - Washington DC (Capital One Arena)
Fri
September 30, 2022 - New York NY (Madison
Square Garden)
Sat October 1, 2022 - New York NY (Madison
Square Garden)
Mon October 3, 2022 -
Boston MA (TD Garden)
Tues October 4, 2022 - University Park PA (Bryce Jordan Center)
Thurs October 6, 2022 - Pittsburgh PA (Petersen Events Center)
Fri October 7, 2022 - Cleveland OH (Wolstein Center)
Sat October 8, 2022 -
Detroit MI (Little
Caesars Arena).
