Brandon Flowers abandons subtlety for a rootin' tootin' country album that will divide fans

Brandon Flowers, the frontman of the Killers, has released his third solo album, Thrasher, marking a decisive and full-throated pivot into country music. The album was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, and features a host of the city's most revered country musicians, including pedal steel legend Bruce Bouton, 85-year-old harmonica player Charlie McCoy, Dave Rawlings (Gillian Welch's musical partner), and lauded Americana musician Margo Price. This project represents a complete commitment to the genre, eschewing subtle, trendy Americana for a style described as rip-snorting, honky-tonking, Nudie suit-wearing country. The album's creation involved writing more than 30 songs, with only a selection making the final cut, indicating a rigorous editing process.

The album is characterized by its high-energy, rollicking sound and Flowers' characteristically committed vocal delivery. The opening track, "Does It Ever Cross Your Mind?", showcases his approach, with lyrics that inject seemingly nonsensical phrases with such gravitas and moxie that they become believable. This commitment to character and narrative extends throughout the album, with many songs serving as detailed character studies filled with idiosyncratic details. The closing track, "An American Dream," is noted for its surreal content concealed by a universal-sounding title. This full commitment is presented as a key strength, contrasting with previous, less successful attempts at genre exploration where a lack of full commitment led to forgettable results.

However, the album is not without its significant missteps, particularly in its attempts at social commentary. The song "Miss America" is written from the perspective of a young woman in an abusive relationship, a recurring theme for Flowers. The writing is criticized for a lack of elegance, with lines that are described as salacious euphemisms. An even more significant failure is the song "Angel," which tells the story of a man who abandons his family after being deployed in the navy to become a drug smuggler, ending with a police chase. The song contains a lyrically clumsy line about his daughter's mixed-race heritage. The song's conclusion, which suggests a person must face a buried, hardwired truth about themselves, is identified as deeply problematic. The critique notes that this message could be interpreted as a commentary on American racial hegemony or as a flat-out racist implication that fates are predetermined, and the ambiguity itself is a major indictment of the songwriting.

Beyond the lyrical controversies, "Angel" is also panned as one of the few genuinely dull songs on the album, described as plodding and dirgey, lacking the spark and fleet-footedness of the rest of the record. This stands in stark contrast to the otherwise lively and committed nature of Thrasher. The overall assessment is that while the westernwear and full-throated country sound suit Brandon Flowers perfectly, the album is marred by a couple of bafflingly misguided social commentary songs. Despite these detractions, the album is ultimately deemed a "hoot" due to Flowers' classically full-throated commitment to the Nashville bit, proving that he thrives when he doesn't hold back.