Conservatives are praising The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers and his new album, "Thrasher," which leans into country western elements and religion.
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which → praise → elements
Flowers is best known as the lead singer of The Killers, who achieved global fame in the mid-2000s following the release of their multi-platinum debut album, "Hot Fuss," which featured hits like "Mr. Brightside."
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which → know → Brightside
Flowers, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has drawn cultural attention with an album centered on Americana, family, and a spiritual yearning for God amid a troubled world.
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Flowers → draw → world
The fact that I love new wave and rock and roll has been well documented.
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I → love → wave
But a life is long enough to allow for more.
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life → allow → more
Walt Whitman said it best, ‘I am large.
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I → say → it
I contain multitudes,’" Flowers said in a trailer for the album.
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Flowers → contain → album
The promotional footage features him driving a classic convertible on a desert highway interspersed with shots of truck stops, diners, ranches, and American flags.
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him → feature → stops
"Well, I'm larger now than I was 20 years ago," he continued.
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he → continue → ?
"And I've unlocked a room that feels like it's been waiting for me all along.
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it → unlock → me
It has offered itself to me and the stories I have to tell at the moment with a breezy enthusiasm."
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I → offer → enthusiasm
He noted that this album was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, clarifying that he is not running away from rock music or his old songs, but rather, "found room for more."
The album's focal track, "An American Dream," gained traction following a viral broadcast performance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."
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track → note → Fallon
The song explores Americana and the illusion of fame as a form of fool's gold, juxtaposed with the value of family and salvation.
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song → explore → family
In the lyrics, Flowers sings about being on the open road while yearning for home, feeling a deep nostalgia for a bygone era, and encountering a roadside billboard that asks, "Where would I spend my eternity?"
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I → sing → eternity
He later described being picked up by Elvis Presley — as he looked in his 1968 comeback tour — driving a Tesla model X and sober.
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he → describe → model
Elvis laughs when asked if fame was worth it, but cries when mentioning his daughter, eventually handing over the keys and saying, "Put it on Jesus."
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fame → laugh → Jesus
The recurring chorus then finishes off the song, "Gold and silver, God and glitter.
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chorus → recur → Gold
Lights that flicker on hubcap chrome.
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that → flicker → chrome
The release arrives amid a broader, well-documented resurgence of country-western culture, spearheaded by stars like Ella Langley topping the charts.
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release → arrive → charts
National Review contributing editor Daniel Foster talked about the song as one built on a rough American nostalgia.
"
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Foster → contribute → nostalgia
," he wrote.
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he → write → ?
"It’s also fully, unapologetically a song about God — a distinctively American, distinctively American West God, which makes sense since Flowers’s God is Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints.
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God → ’ → Saints
CCM Magazine, a Christian music news outlet, also wrote an extensive review of the album.
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Magazine → write → album
While he is of a different Christian denomination, Logan Sekulow of CCM Magazine credited Flowers for his frequent references to biblical concepts and images.
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Sekulow → credit → concepts
"[M]arketed ‘Christian’ artists should take note, that Thrasher and the catalogue of Flowers/The Killers contain more direct references to Christ, heaven and biblical principles than you will find on many releases marketed specifically to Christian audiences outside of Worship music," he wrote.
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he → take → music
"This is the same songwriter who warned about a devil who doesn’t resemble Jesus in 'When You Were Young,' celebrated the sustaining power and rarity of a loving marriage in 'Dying Breed', and retold the emotional arc of the prodigal son in 'Fire in Bone.'
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You → warn → Bone
Flowers has never treated faith like a decorative accessory.
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Flowers → treat → accessory
"
He specifically praised the use of Elvis as a figure tied to worldly fame and yet yearning for God.
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He → praise → God
"The King becomes something closer to a spiritual predecessor: another larger-than-life performer raised in church, caught between the sacred and the spectacular, now passing something down to the artist who followed him," Sekulow wrote.
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Sekulow → become → him
He then concluded, "The record reaches its destination in a great collision of ‘Gold and Silver, God and Glitter.’
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record → conclude → Gold
That phrase could almost serve as a mission statement for Brandon Flowers’ Thrasher.
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phrase → serve → Thrasher
It all finally makes sense when Elvis is there to throw him the keys as he offers one final word to his protégé: ‘put it on Jesus.’"
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he → make → Jesus
Fox News Digital spoke to conservative culture critic Christian Toto, who called Flowers' performance of the song on "The Tonight Show," "Remarkable.
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who → speak → Show
Here's a veteran singer who seems to have a new lease on life."
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who → seem → life
He also offered a suggestion as to why country music appears to be having a revival in recent years.
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music → offer → years
It's more stripped down than other music genres.
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It → strip → genres
We have some mighty talents at work at the moment, singers who connect with large, energetic groups of Americans.
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who → have → Americans
Morgan Wallen rushes to mind, a singer so popular he survived one of the nastiest, and most unfair, Cancel Culture attacks and only grew bigger," he said.
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he → rush → attacks
"It's a genre that allows for God, for love, for spirituality, and for a hunger to touch dirty, get dirty and get back up again.
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that → allow → dirty
With A.I. looming, and smart phones keeping us digitized, there's a greater need for something soulful and true."
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us → loom → something
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