Reintroducing a little electronic hauteur to the airpunch anthemics of 2012’s Battle Born, the Killers’ fifth album opens impressively with the reptilian title track, reminiscent of Achtung Baby-era U2, and the glossy, ironic funk of The Man. Misgivings hover, though, around frontman Brandon Flowers overcoming writer’s block by drawing on his initially reluctant wife’s abusive childhood and PTSD (and enlisting their three young sons to sing “Can’t do this alone/ We need you at home” on the airy, dreamy Some Kind of Love). The most striking song (discounting the Personal Jesus reenactment The Calling) draws on Flowers’ own childhood experience: the surging, synth-laced Tyson vs Douglas, inspired by his shock when the champ hit the mat, could touch gloves with the band’s best.
