music: The Killers recently released their single Runaways from their upcoming album Battle Born. It is the classic youth love story with a twist. Runaways is the story of a young American guy who falls for the classic blonde American beauty. She is in the process of running away from the life she has to start a new and the guy just can't let her go. He loves her and follows her and eventually wins her over. Despite this youthfully romantic notion, the narrative doesn't end well. After winning over the love of his life and eventually marrying her, he finds himself discontent with the life he now has. He is stumbling home late after a night trying to find his life in a bottle with home not quite feeling like home. And thus the plural of Runaways is born.
Brandon Flowers paints this story with beautiful lyrics. "Blond hair blowin' in the summer wind" as they meet. "I knew that when I met you I'm not gonna let you runaway" as he falls in love. Wishing for the past as he nostalgically talks about confessing their dreams to the summer stars in some forgotten time gone by. And finally "Stumbling like a ghost I haunt these halls.... I recognize the girl but I can't settle in these walls" as the fantasy of that blonde girl playing in the sand is not the life he now has. It is a lyrically stark presentation of a once great love gone wrong.
What makes the song great though is the sound of it. Over the straightforward acoustics that begin the song Flowers sings his nostalgic tale. As he continues through the song, every ounce of it crescendos. The verse builds to a swelling beautiful chorus. The verses gain pace to eventually meet the humongous size of that chorus. The hook isn't infectious but the scope is.
As the song soars towards its arena sized end the Killers remind of what rock once was: Big. The song is big and bigger, and then even bigger. Designed for loud radio in a car on a beautiful day. Also designed for those rock sized arenas they are sure to fill on the tour for their new album. This song is no doubt a fist pumper and crowdpleaser.
As all of this epic sense of song is being brought to life by the band, Flowers sings in a way that is also reminiscent of a day gone by. The song itself is not a throwback, nor are his vocal stylings. It is more the way he sings. He sings like the rock gods that have created the anthems that inspired Runaways. He sings as if he doesn't give his all something tragic really will happen in the world. And as he does this he finds something within himself and within the song not found since the tail of Tommy and Gina. It is a song reminiscent of great American rock anthems. I am not going to say that Runaways is as good as something like Glory Days or Born To Run or Living On A Prayer, but it is certainly in the vain of those songs. It feels like those songs. It is something that seems to no longer exist in that way. It may be the new American rock classic. Thank you Killers for going big and not going home.
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