| The Killers | Primary Artist |
| Damian Taylor | Keyboards |
| Stuart Price | Keyboards |
| Isaac Tubb | Trumpet |
| Nate Kimball | Trombone |
| Alissa Fleming | Violin |
| Las Vegas Master Singers | Background Vocals |
| Jennifer Eriksson | Violin |
| Daniel Lanois | Composer, Producer |
| Steve Lillywhite | Producer, Additional Production |
| Brendan O'Brien | Producer, Engineer |
| Doug Joswick | Package Production |
| Jacques Lu Cont | Remixing |
| Damian Taylor | Programming, Producer, Additional Production |
| Emily Lazar | Mastering |
| Stuart Price | Programming, Producer |
| Joe LaPorta | Mastering |
| The Killers | Composer, Producer |
| Brandon Flowers | Composer |
| David Keuning | Composer |
| Mark Stoermer | Composer |
| Ronnie Vannucci | Composer |
| Robert Root | Engineer |
| Warren Fu | Art Direction |
| Kristen Yiengst | Artwork, Photo Production |
| Martin Gomez | Layout |
Anonymous
Posted September 21, 2012
I love Battle Born. It's a great album that is pretty different from what they've released in the past and I'm loving it.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Battle Born is not a Killers album; it is another Brandon Flowers solo album—the sequel to Flamingo, if you will. It is vast, anthemic, incredibly polished, and lacking the beloved grit and angst of quintessential Killers sound a la Sam's Town. Having six producers on the album is a bit excessive and, in my opinion, too many cooks in the kitchen. The album is almost too mature. I feel like it didn't write itself, but rather, Flowers and Co. set out to accomplish a certain plethora of sound—steroidal cognizance of the end goal sabotaging the natural songwriting progression, which, in the process, negates a crucial organicity. Therein lies the inherent difference between Battle Born and The Killers' first few albums, their last phenomenal offering to date being Sawdust, its collection of B-sides and unreleased tracks from the Hot Fuss and Sam's Town era proving far more infectious than anything on Battle Born. There comes a point in every artist's career when they become too conscious of their work and try to do too much. This is okay. It's all part of the process. While Flowers' voice sounds unequivocally grand and on point, I'm still left with the pervasive feeling that any time spent listening to Battle Born could be spent listening to an edgier, more authentic Killers, e.g., "Bling" and "Uncle Johnny." Nonetheless, I'm glad they're not trying to recreate the same formula. I'm glad they're arguably overthinking things and releasing an enjoyable work that's a fully realized triumph with respect to its intent, yet a concurrent misstep. Oftentimes a Battle Born is rendered before another masterpiece is furnished. 3.5 stars.
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Editorial Reviews
All Music Guide - Stephen Thomas Erlewine
The great open secret about the Killers is that they only make sense when they operate on a grand scale. Everything they do is outsized; their anthems are created for fathomless stadiums, a character quirk they've grown into over the years as they've gone from scrappy wannabes fighting their way out of Las Vegas to the international superstars they've longed to be. Nearly ten years after Hot Fuss -- a decade that flashed by like a falling rocket -- the Killers aren't quite the new U2 or the Cure, to name two of their inescapable role models, but they're not Echo & the Bunnymen, either, doomed to be playing for an ever-selective audience. They are new ...