Arriving on the heels of an uneven decade -- when a pair of high-charting releases failed to match the sales of their early albums and their founding lineup was effectively reduced to a duo -- Nevada's most successful musical export roared back with their triumphant sixth set,
Imploding the Mirage. Balancing their core synths-and-
Springsteen sound with stadium-sized pop bombast,
the Killers strike gold, dispensing with the clumsy missteps heard on the bloated
Battle Born and weary
Wonderful Wonderful and delivering their most focused offering since their 2000s heyday. Finding a sweet spot between the Wild West grandeur of
Sam's Town and frontman
Brandon Flowers' excellent '80s-indebted solo efforts,
Mirage isn't so much a revelation as a masterful distillation of what they've been doing with varying degrees of success since 2004. The typical
Killers trademarks are all here -- big anthems and even bigger emotions -- buffered by
Flowers' evocative storytelling that honors dust-swept landscapes and everyday folks just trying to make it. With founding guitarist
Dave Keuning absent and bassist
Mark Stoermer in a reduced role,
Flowers and drummer
Ronnie Vannucci, Jr. recruited an impressive cast of guests who elevate the album without distracting from the essential
Killers spirit. Alongside executive producers
Shawn Everett and multi-instrumentalist
Jonathan Rado (
Foxygen),
Day & Age's disco prince
Stuart Price injects the funk on the
Talking Heads-esque groover "Fire in Bone" and frequent
Flowers' collaborator
Ariel Rechtshaid channels
Fleetwood Mac on the expansive "Running Towards a Place." Speaking of
the Mac, guitarist
Lindsey Buckingham joins the fray for a soaring solo to close out the galloping anthem "Caution," one of
the Killers' best singles to date. Elsewhere,
k.d. lang duets with
Flowers on the lovelorn "Lightning Fields," which sounds like
Peter Gabriel covering
Kate Bush, while
Weyes Blood's
Natalie Mering provides delicate backing vocals across the album. Brooklyn band
Lucius,
the War on Drugs'
Adam Granduciel, and songwriter
Blake Mills also add their subtle touches to further flesh out their respective tracks. Following years of ups and downs -- both as a unit and, for
Flowers, as a supportive husband --
Imploding the Mirage feels like more than just one of their best albums -- it feels like a triumphant and invigorated rut-reversal that shines with a hard-won confidence. ~ Neil Z. Yeung
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