After a long hiatus and group solo projects The Killers return with their fourth album Battle Born. Legendary producers Stuart Price, Steve Lillywhite, Damian Taylor and Brendan O’Brien, got together with their musical styles and helped the band put this album together. The Killers have been searching for a stable musical identity starting with new wave, wave flagging rock and sleek synth pop and now try to combine everything into one.

The album starts off with “Flesh and Bone” which showcases the band at its best. The track opens up with flashy synths, ear catching melodies, Brandon Flowers vocal talent, and teenage romance lyrics to build up the platform for the rest of the album.

The lead single “Runaways” is a thundering rock anthem; this is where Flowers has taken his vocal talents to another level channeling his inner Springsteen. But I really don’t take the baby faced front man singer serious in this song with lyrics “Blonde hair blowin’ in the summer. Blue-eyed girl playing in the sand.” I have a hard time picturing Flowers taking the role of the macho man Jersey boy he wishes to be.

The sentimental ballad “Here With Me” is where the front man comes out with his true self and features his most sincere vocals yet. The song’s strong point is it’s realness in the lyrics, “Don’t want your picture in my cell phone. I want you here with me.”, which is pretty relatable to audiences. As the album progresses its next songs seem to confuse me bit.

“From Here On Out” which sounds like the bands Christmas song “Cowboys Christmas Ball”, which is useless for the album. The song alone is so random and does not fit the whole concept The Killers are trying to send out for Battle Born. Then track “Be Still” should have been named “Here With Me Part 2” since it sounds the same as the fourth track on the album. These two songs are irrelevant and do not do justice to the album.

Luckily the last song “Battle Born” saves it from a disappointing ending, which is a loud 80’s style rock anthem. Overall Battle Born is simply alright, it’s not a complete loss since there are five good songs. The problem I have with the album is that it isn’t memorable; it hasn’t grown on me at all.

What’s missing is that Battle Born doesn’t have the weird, strange lyrics fans have grown to love from The Killers. Everyone remembers “Somebody told me you had a boyfriend. That looks like a girlfriend.” but I doubt people will remember the lyrics for “Flesh and Bone” or “Deadlines And Commitments”. Battle Born is just an alright album and that’s coming from a true fan.