The Killers have dropped their greatest hits album, Rebel Diamonds, celebrating 20 years of the band’s influential Las Vegas indie-rock sound. They have announced a U.K. and Ireland arena tour in support of the milestone album, with tickets available via StubHub. Rebel Diamonds also features a new song as well, “Spirit,” which falls in as the last and 20th track on the album, as if saying “here’s to 20 more years of The Killers.”
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In a recent interview with The Guardian, frontman Brandon Flowers revealed that the band would be open to a residency at the Las Vegas Sphere, the orb-like arena that recently hosted U2 and will subsequently feature Phish. With The Killers being a Las Vegas-borne band, there would be definite significance in giving them a residency in their hometown, and Flowers touched on that, but also on how the town has changed since the band formed.
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“You can take the boys out of Vegas, but it will always be a part of us,” he said. “When we were kids, it was a small town. For a while it was the fastest-growing city in America.” Of the Sphere, Flowers said, “I was lucky enough to see U2 at the Sphere. Absolutely we would be open to doing something like that. It would be a big undertaking, but it would be a blast.”
Rebel Diamonds is also a big undertaking; how do you condense 20 years of music into just 20 tracks? Do you go for the chart-toppers, the big singles, or personal favorites, the songs you’re most proud of? The Killers seem to have done both, including the obvious greatest hits like “Mr. Brightside,” “When You Were Young,” and “Human,” but also tapped some recent songs like “boy,” “Pressure Machine,” and “Your Side of Town.”
The new track “Spirit” asks some big-picture questions backed by electric, dreamy instrumentals. Where does the spirit go? Is it someplace holy? / Is it holy and free? / I don’t know if it’s true, but I think that I want it to be / I want it to be, sings Flowers in the chorus. The final verse hits hard over an ethereal beat: Come on, touch me, I’m alive / Come on, is it holy and free? / When darkness dampens my sight / My dreams are big and bathing in light.
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