The Killers Announce New Album ‘Pressure Machine’ Out August 13th

The Killers

Pressure Machine

August 13, 2021; Island Records

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.  Click HERE to watch it.

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.

 

Click HERE to pre-order Pressure Machine

Click HERE to watch the album trailer

 

 

Tour dates:

Date                                        City                             Venue

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

 

 

Album cover:

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