The Killers’ Best Songs, Ranked Pt. 2

(Part Two: Songs 25-1, for Part One, click here)

25. “Somebody Told Me” – Hot Fuss (2004)

My full-fledged Killers fandom didn’t really begin until around Day & Age and so before I even associated it with the band, I knew “Somebody Told Me” as a catchy rock/pop radio staple. In my mind, it was a late-career Duran Duran song or a hit from some new wave band I’d never heard of. In actuality, it’s another Hot Fuss track that shines because of the interplay between all four members. Flowers recently made that point himself saying, “This song really brought out the band’s strengths at that time. I was 20, 21, and just trying to write about what I was doing and seeing in these indie nightclubs in Vegas. I was listening to Pulp and David Bowie, trying to channel all of that stuff. It’s one of Mark’s greatest moments on the bass, too. It’s a really great collaboration.”

24. “Losing Touch” – Day & Age (2008)

The Killers are extremely good at album openers and “Losing Touch” is no exception. It’s a gorgeous song wrapped in the rhythm and swagger of a 70s Bowie cut. For a band that’s so melodic, I haven’t given bassist Mark Stoermer nearly the credit he’s due on the list thus far. Playing off not only the drums but a saxophone in the mix as well, his baseline is what really drives the song forward. If all of that wasn’t enough for one track, the song closes with one of Dave Keuning’s best guitar solos as well.

23. “Battle Born” – Battle Born (2012)

I’m not one for guilty pleasures or loving something ironically so I must acknowledge that in all seriousness, I fucking love this song. Sure, it features lines like “You lost faith in the human spirit / You walk around like a ghost / And your star-spangled heart / Took a train for the coast” as well as “I always saw you as a kind of keeper / A mother to a child/ But your boys have grown soft/ And your girls have gone wild.” A YouTube comment once, with pinpoint accuracy, likened the track to a lovechild of bands ASIA and Journey. Brandon Flowers has even admitted that the band doesn’t play the track anymore because he can’t get over some of the lyrics. And still I say, bring it on. Because despite all of that, the song just fucking rips.

22. “West Hills” – Pressure Machine (2021)

Because Pressure Machine was released without any promotional singles, there wasn’t much to go on in order to prepare for the band’s bold change in direction. That decision may have worked out for the best as “West Hills,” the album opener, is really the perfect first impression of Pressure Machine. While there’s a notable change in instrumentation and an increased lyrical focus in the music, the track still brings the same intensity (and then some) that you’d expect from any Killers song.

 21. “The Way It Was” – Battle Born (2012)

Sometime between 2008’s Day & Age and 2012’s Battle Born, Brandon Flowers’ went from being merely a good singer to a great one. While that improvement is noticeable over time on the band’s records, it’s probably most apparent in live performances around this time. Out of all their cuts, I’d argue that “The Way It Was” is not just the best showcase of Brandon’s singing, but also The Killers’ song that is most improved by a live setting.  

20. “Sam’s Town” – Sam’s Town (2006)

I always love asking people what theme song they expect when they hear the HBO static intro (for me it’s Curb). Now, if that same question were applied to the sound of inserting a CD into a car stereo, “Sam’s Town” is undoubtedly the song I’d expect next. Loud, bombastic, and furiously busy, it’s a track that’s perfectly suited to represent the last wave of the CD era. But even in a different style, the song is still great, as evident in the gorgeous acoustic version here.

19. “Spaceman” – Day & Age (2008)

Where does one even begin with “Spaceman?” In a lot of ways, it feels like the many dichotomies of The Killers baked into one song. It’s an infectious pop tune that highlights the band’s knack for melody across synths, guitars, and even shouts, all backed by a rhythm section that makes it one of the danciest tunes the band has ever released. Even after many listens to the track, you’d be forgiven in overlooking the dark subject matter in the verses (which to my best guess either details a failed suicide attempt or an alien probe).

18. “Quiet Town” – Pressure Machine (2021)

A beautiful song carried by an exquisite and yet simple chord progression on guitar. The track details the tragic true event of a railroad death from Flowers’ youth. According to Flowers, it’s a track he never could have written without the influence of someone like John Prine. A lot of songs in this style of music fall flat because they’re written so broadly they wind up lifeless. Here, Flowers’ specificity is what sets this track apart and is ultimately why the song is so authentic and moving.  

17. “My Own Soul’s Warning” – Imploding the Mirage (2020)

Apparently, this was the final track written for Imploding the Mirage which is wild to think about considering the song feels like it must have been the north star for the entire project. In all honesty, it’s hard to imagine Imploding the Mirage kicking off in any other fashion. Considering that this was maybe the most show-ready track in their catalog for years, it’s a bit ironic that the band was forced to sit on it while Covid-19 played out. You can understand Flowers’ and the crowd’s enthusiasm then when they did finally get to debut it live.

16. “For Reasons Unknown” – Sam’s Town (2006)

Amongst the 2000s rock revival, The Killers were a bit unique in utilizing a synth as opposed to a second guitar. For that reason, among others, I think critics and fans were more apt to dismiss the Killers as being too pop-friendly when compared to their peers. To me, “For Reasons Unknown” has always had the sound of a band reminding everyone they could write a straightforward rock song as well as anybody.

15. “The Getting By” – Pressure Machine (2021)

Both Anthony Fantano and Pitchfork had similar critiques of Pressure Machine, noting a failure in Flowers’ imagination to provide solutions to the issues he identifies in his hometown across the album. And look, while I clearly am drawn to music criticism and have a lot of respect for what critics do, I often wonder if people are just searching for a reason to explain why they don’t like something. To me, an album that provided solutioning to the problems it identifies not only feels inauthentic but sounds insufferable. Moreover, this idea completely misses the point of what this album is. As an album, Pressure Machine hangs on the uncertainty of not knowing, the meeting point where the optimism of faith and the hardness of reality are forced to meet. So to me, the defining moment of the entire album is here in “The Getting By” as Flowers’ voice teeters in describing one of those moments, “They’ve got their treasure laying way up high / Where there might be many mansions / But when I look up, all I see is sky.”

14. “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine” – Hot Fuss (2004)

How amazing is it that the first song in The Killers’ discography (side 1, track 1 of their debut album) is a song about murder? Like, imagine if REM’s first song had been about sleep quality. Or if instead of “I Saw Her Standing There,” The Beatles’ first song had been about tiny bugs (or tiny cars?). If there were a music czar in this country and I was appointed to this fictitious seat, my first order of business would be ensuring that every band’s Side 1, Track 1 song was an origin story for their name. Or, maybe like my 4^th act after figuring out how to pay artists a living wage, making ticket prices affordable, and getting The Replacements to tour one more time.

13. “Runaways” – Battle Born (2012)

Brandon Flowers released his debut solo album, Flamingo, during the band’s hiatus following Day & Age. While the effort had a couple of standout tracks, most would agree that it did little to satisfy fans’ hunger for a full-fledged Killers project. During promotional interviews, however, Flowers would enticingly hint that he had left one gem off the record to save for the band’s next album. Based on its sound and overall quality, I had long suspected that track to be “Runaways.” Thanks to the band’s recent promotional work around Rebel Diamonds, we can now confirm that suspicion to be true! As I’ve said before, Battle Born was a bit of a mixed bag for The Killers. That is not the case with “Runaways.” Backed by Ronnie Vannucci’s stadium-sized drumming and an impassioned vocal performance by Flowers, “Runaways” not only sounds like a classic Killers anthem but in retrospect seems to have anticipated the heartland rock revival that would come along over the following decade.

12. “Blowback” – Imploding the Mirage (2020)

While The Killers are often linked to Bruce Springsteen, I sometimes wonder if Tom Petty is the more apt comparison. Not only did both have a penchant for writing huge radio hits across their albums, but both also made (arguably) their best work later in their career by stripping back. In any case, among many qualities that made Tom Petty such a great writer was his ability to garner profound meaning from what could otherwise sound like an innocuous turn of phrase. “Blowback” is a song that really reminds me of this strength. Take for instance the way Flowers’ opening line across each verse subtly reveals a protagonist who has quit smoking. The defining line of the song, however, is Flowers’ own note of self-restraint as a narrator. Just as he starts detailing his protagonist’s romantic woes, he cuts himself off, “Woah, you’d better check that, buddy” wisely noting that, “…she knows where she comes from / Doesn’t need you dragging her all through it again.” This, of course, doesn’t even begin to cover the fantastic instrumentation on the track let alone the sublime outro that may well be the most beautiful piece of music the band has set to tape.

11. “This is Your Life” – Day & Age (2008)

I owe one of the greatest moments of my entire life (along with hundreds of other pleasurable hours) to podcaster and Killers fan, Andy Greenwald. How is this, you may ask? Following the release of Flowers’ second solo album (the massively underrated The Desired Effect), Greenwald interviewed Flowers on his sadly now-defunct, Andy Greenwald Show. Over the course of many topics in the discussion, Greenwald gently mentions “This is Your Life” as not only one of the band’s best songs but one that maybe they ought to play live more often. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the band’s first show following the interview would happen to be my first Killers show as well and if you couldn’t guess by now, the band kicked off its encore with none other than, “This is Your Life.” And so, I hereby dedicate this spot in my rankings to Andy Greenwald. Andy, if you’re ever in Chicago, I owe you a drink and a meal. If Chris Ryan’s there too, I’ll even bring cigs.

10. “Pressure Machine” – Pressure Machine (2021)

If you couldn’t tell by now, I have as much faith in the Killers’ abilities as any blogger possibly could. Still, I don’t think I even knew the band had a track as devastating and gorgeous as “Pressure Machine” up their sleeve. For a lot of people who have not kept up with the band’s music, I think you’d be surprised by the quiet and stunning beauty of this song. In Flowers’ own words, “It ain’t funny at all / It’s gonna break your heart one day.”

9. “Dying Breed” – Imploding the Mirage (2020)

What if I told you there was a Killers song that starts with a NEU! sample? Oh! And that along with the NEU! sample, it also interpolates a Can sample? And that it featured lyrics co-penned by Alex Cameron (“I’ll be there when water’s rising / I’ll be your lifeguard” has all the beautiful perversity of an Alex Cameron lyric minus the perversity, right?)? Oh yeah, and then it explodes in a descending guitar/synth line that has to be The Killers’ greatest “Born to Run” impression to date? And that somehow the song not only manages to have its own identity but is one of the all-time greatest Killers tracks ? Um, well yes, I guess that is what I’m saying…Someone get me on Song Exploder!

8. “Smile Like You Mean It” – Hot Fuss (2004)

Has a more perfect third single ever existed? Perhaps it’s the inverse of “Dying Breed” as according to Flowers, the band wrote “Smile” in all of about ten minutes. Flowers has often remarked about the sheer magic the band was channeling when making their debut. With “Smile Like You Mean” you can hear a band that’s perfectly in sync. It’s a track where each member brings something to the table and together it still adds up to something far greater than its individual parts.

7. “Caution” – Imploding the Mirage (2020)

Look, 2020 was obviously not a great time for anyone. Still, that should take nothing away from the fact that “Caution” was my highlight of the year. That The Killers would make their best track since Sam’s Town with none other than Lindsey Buckingham on guitar? Come on! You can’t make this stuff up. And for those who have not heard the track, this is not just your typical cash-in feature with a music legend to gain some clout. Not only is this a track that’s worthy of Lindsey’s singular talents, his guitar solo on this thing sounds like he just came from the Rumours sessions. Seriously! Go listen.

6. “Bling (Confession of a King)” – Sam’s Town (2006)

We’re so far removed from the initial release and subsequent reappraisal of Sam’s Town that it’s actually kind of insane to think about how widely derided it was when it first came out. And look, I certainly get some of the factors that made it a ripe target to pan: A 2000s rock-revival band that had somehow managed to usurp their peers and forerunners in popularity? A deliberate shift in sound from English new wave to americana? Bold prognostications from Brandon Flowers that this would become a modern classic upon arrival? A band whose members were finally able to grow facial hair? And yet, despite all of that, it’s still hard for me to imagine sitting through Sam’s Town and being able to outright dismiss it. Especially when you have songs as good as “Bling” on it! Luckily, time seems to have won out for Sam’s Town and if anything its initial reception has only enhanced the album’s overall legacy. So yeah, ‘Bling” rules and Sam’s Town rules! And yes, I was right all along!

5. “In the Car Outside” – Pressure Machine (2021)

Going back to podcasts, Andy Greenwald’s The Watch cohost Chris Ryan had one of my all-time favorite lines when he asked Flowers and Vannucci whether the band had used a fake ID to sneak “In the Car Outside” onto Pressure Machine. Given the difference in style from the rest of the album, he’s not wrong to ask. For an album that is so consistently reserved in its performances, “In the Car Outside” has all the hallmarks of a Killers stadium hit. And yet, despite all of that, it clearly belongs on the album. Flowers’ lyrics about a strained relationship are as poignant and stirring as any other song on the record. Before, I described Pressure Machine as an album at which the points of faith and reality are forced to meet. One could possibly think of this track as the point in which Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska is steamrolled by New Order’s Power Corruption and Lies.

4. “Mr. Brightside” – Hot Fuss (2004)

This song is beyond ranking. It transcends you, it transcends me, it transcends the band. I’ll leave you with one decision to make. What is the crazier fact about the tune, that it was the first song the band ever wrote or that it has spent, at last count, 382 weeks on the U.K.’s top 100 chart?

3. “When You Were Young” – Sam’s Town (2006)

Believe it or not, I was not a particularly hip or cultured person in my youth. While I liked music, I saw it more or less as a background commodity, something that was on in the car as I was driven to school. The first CD I ever bought was Weird Al’s Running with Scissors. My first purchase in the iTunes store was “My Humps.” My second was “Boys of Summer.” Obviously, there was Bruce Springsteen, whose music I loved but had essentially been born into. All of that, in any case, is just to paint a portrait of my state of mind when I first heard “When You Were Young.” At the time, it sounded not just like the greatest song ever written, but the platonic ideal of a rock and roll band to me. Fifteen-ish years later, it still sounds that way. And sure, there’s a lot of sentimental value because of how radically this song shifted the way I engage with art and music, but I have to say, there’s no way this song would have stuck with me for this long if it wasn’t so brilliant and timeless in the first place.

2. “Read My Mind” – Sam’s Town (2006)

“When You Were Young” may have been the first Killers song I ever downloaded, but “Read My Mind” is surely the one I’ve listened to most (which is doubly impressive given that on my first iPod Nano I listened to “When You Were Young” approximately 1,000,000 times). To this day, “Read My Mind” is such a special song to me that it’s hard to describe what makes it so great. But, if I had to sum up my favorite aspect of The Killers as a band, it’d be their ability to write songs that are so moving and propulsive they become transformative. I can’t think of a better way to describe “Read My Mind.” By the time the track reaches Dave Keuning’s note-perfect guitar solo, forget about it. The song has crossed into another threshold, it’s magic.

1. “All These Things That I’ve Done” – Hot Fuss (2004)

My favorite moment in any piece of music is in “All These Things That I’ve Done”as the band explodes out of its iconic gospel bridge into the final chorus,

“Yeahhhh, you know you gotta help me out, yeaaaah
/ Oh don’t you put me on the back burnerrrrerr /
You know you gotta help me out, yeaahahh.”

I fear I haven’t noted enough how flat-out amazing the Killers are as a live band. For anybody on the fence, let me say this. To hear that moment of “All These Things” being belted out by the band and a stadium-worth of fans is by itself worth the price of admission to one of their shows. It’s new wave, it’s gospel, it’s glorious. It’s a song that started out on an answering machine and fits into football stadiums. More than anything, it’s a song that feels like it could only be The Killers and that is why, after all these songs, it is number one.

Thanks all for reading! I’d like to give a shout-out to various list-making places that I have shamelessly lifted from including Grantland (RIP), The Ringer, and others. As you may note, this is written in pretty much the exact style that Steven Hyden uses in his lists at Uproxx.com. I ask for his forgiveness/approval for taking so much from him here. I also would like to apologize to the band if any of my anecdotes about songs are apocryphal. I did my best to link sources, but some things were hard to track down and may just exist in my head (whoops!). The same goes for any Redditor or YouTube commentator if I accidentally took a point and, over years of fandom, made it my own. Lastly, I would like to offer an apology to fans for the many tracks I wrongly left off this list including but not limited to “Another Life,” “Midnight Show,” I Can’t Stay,” “Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll,” “Another Girl,” and “My list.” I promise they will be featured in my top 80 songs list to commemorate the band’s 40th anniversary.