The Killers detour into a new and rich sonic landscape

By MARK KENNEDY
AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The latest album from The Killers started, unusually, with silence, lyrics first. As the pandemic gripped the nation in 2020, words began spilling out of frontman Brandon Flowers based on growing up during the 1990s in the tiny, remote Utah town of Nephi. The words became poems that were perfect for lyrics. The rest of the band took on the challenge of turning those poems into songs and the result is the 11-track “Pressure Machine,” marking a new smaller sonic direction for the band known for arena-ready rock songs like “Mr. Brightside” and “The Man.”