The Killers
photo: raph_ph · cc by 2.0 ↗The Killers formed in Las Vegas in 2001 around singer-keyboardist Brandon Flowers and guitarist Dave Keuning, taking their name from a fictional band depicted in the music video for New Order's 'Crystal.' Their 2004 debut 'Hot Fuss' paired glossy new-wave synths with anthemic guitar hooks on singles like 'Mr. Brightside' and 'Somebody Told Me,' and the 2006 follow-up 'Sam's Town' pivoted toward widescreen American heartland rock. They became one of the defining arena-rock acts of the 2000s, fusing British post-punk and synth-pop with Springsteen-scale Americana.
The band took its very name from a fictional group shown in the video for New Order's 'Crystal,' and Flowers has often pointed to New Order's fusion of guitars with sequenced synths as a template; the danceable, synth-forward pulse under the Killers' early singles openly descends from it.
listen forThrow on New Order's 'Bizarre Love Triangle' right before 'Somebody Told Me' and listen for the same trick — a chugging, melodic synth line and an insistent dance drive pushing a rock chorus onto the floor.
For 2006's 'Sam's Town,' Flowers openly reoriented the band toward Bruce Springsteen's widescreen American rock, citing 'Born to Run' as a touchstone for its romantic, escape-from-a-small-town grandeur.
listen forPlay 'Born to Run' and then 'When You Were Young' — hear the same surging build, chiming instrumentation and yearning to break out of a dead-end town, Flowers reaching for a Springsteen-scale narrative sweep.
Flowers is an avowed David Bowie devotee, and the band's taste for theatrical, glam-tinged grandeur and dramatic vocal delivery draws on Bowie's art-rock showmanship.
listen forCue Bowie's soaring 'Life on Mars?' next to 'All These Things That I've Done' — both swell from a quiet piano-and-voice opening into a huge, quasi-anthemic climax built on melodrama and a big theatrical vocal.