Brandon Flowers announces new Nashville-recorded solo album ‘Thrasher’: “I’ve found my way back to my father’s music”
The Killers’ Brandon Flowers has announced new Nashville-recorded solo album ‘Thrasher’, which sees him provide a rare glimpse into his upbringing in Utah.
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Set for release on August 21 via Island Records, the new record marks the first solo album from the rock icon in over a decade, following on from 2015’s sophomore record ‘The Desired Effect’. Visit here to pre-order.
Recorded in Nashville, ‘Thrasher’ sees Flowers join forces with longtime producers Shawn Everett and Jonathan Rado, as well as guitarist David Rawlings, pedal steel player Bruce Bouton, and 85-year-old Charlie McCoy (the harmonica player who featured on all four of Bob Dylan’s Nashville records).
His third solo LP focuses on Flowers’ early years, spending his childhood in the small town of Nephi, Utah, and reflecting on how his father would drive him around the countryside listening to Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.
This chapter of the singer’s life is one that he has rarely written about, and the new album sees him reminisce about those formative years and put forward some of his most personal and vulnerable songwriting yet.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found my way back to my father’s music – ‘Country-Western’ (as he called it) – and discovered that the stories I carry really feel most at home in the skin of this beautiful American tradition,” Flowers shared.
Carrying the same Americana and Western stylings as seen in The Killers’ albums such as 2006’s ‘Sam’s Town’ and 2021’s ‘Pressure Machine’, ‘Thrasher’ is said to strike a balance between sadness and humour, and captures thinly veiled stories from his childhood.
Lead single ‘Plans’ is set to arrive on Friday (June 26) and touches on themes including ill-fated dreams. These include ‘One Of Us’ – a touching tribute to a brother-in-law who suddenly passed several years ago – and ‘Miss America’, which captures nostalgia from his upbringing, including ‘80s shopping mall pageants and fraught early childhood memories.
The closing track, ‘An American Dream’, sees Flowers remember his mum and the time they had together while his father came to the end of his life.
“Two things can be true at the same time. The fact that I love new-wave and rock n’ roll is well documented, but life is long enough to allow for more,” he said in a new social media video, providing a first glimpse into the euphoric, heartfelt sound of the album.
“Walt Whitman said it best: ‘I am large, I contain multitudes’… Well, I’m larger now than I was 20 years ago, and I’ve unlocked a room that feels like it’s been waiting for me all along,” Flowers added, saying that recording with such “seasoned and extremely talented musicians” has been “one of the highlights of my career”.
“I hope you hear the joy in the record, because we sure had a blast making it,” he concluded. “This is not me running away from rock n’ roll. I don’t want to replace my old songs. I simply found room for more.”
Flowers releases ‘Thrasher’ on August 21. Check out the full tracklist below:
‘Does It Ever Cross Your Mind?’
‘One Of Us’
‘Tiger’s Blood’
‘Plans’
‘Paradise’
‘Miss America’
‘Angel’
‘The Red Ground’
‘In A Heartbeat’
‘An American Dream’
The Killers’ frontman spoke to NME about plans for a new solo album last year, when at the 2025 Ivor Novellos and presented with the Special International Award by Bruce Springsteen.
“The next thing we’re going to get is a Brandon Flowers record, unfortunately,” he quipped, before saying that the album was going to be taking “a step backwards” from his 2015 album.
“I made two South West records, if you want to know the truth. One is a romantic South West record, and the other is a narrative South West record which picks up where [The Killers’ 2021 album] ‘Pressure Machine’ left off,” he shared, before adding that Springsteen was a source of inspiration.
“He gave me the permission to write about things that I actually know about and experiences that I’ve actually witnessed, that I’ve lived,” Flowers added. “There’s something powerful about that. When people hear it, it doesn’t matter where they are, they get it and they pick up the heart and the soul from it. Those are the things that I’m able to tap into.”
Flowers added: “I’m thrilled about both of them, and they’ll both come out before the next Killers record – but I’m thrilled about the next Killers record.”
This is the first of two solo records on the way from Flowers, with The Killers next album said to be coming in 2027.
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