Eleven years after his last solo record, Brandon Flowers announced Thrasher on June 23, 2026: a country-and-Americana album recorded at Nashville's RCA Studio A, releasing August 21. The man who wrote 'Mr. Brightside' just staked his solo return on the genre that punishes artifice most. The Killers built a Vegas-maximalist cathedral of synthesizers and stadium crescendos; Thrasher trades all of it for pedal steel, harmonica, and a Bob Dylan collaborator on the session sheet. Flowers' Sun sits at 0° Cancer, calculated from his June 21, 1981 birth data — a memory-driven, father-music sign that has been pulling him toward this album for longer than he probably knew.
What Thrasher Actually Is
Thrasher is a 10-track country and Americana album, the first solo full-length Flowers has released since 2015's The Desired Effect. He cut it at Nashville's historic RCA Studio A with producers Shawn Everett and Jonathan Rado, pulling in guitarist David Rawlings, pedal steel player Bruce Bouton, and harmonica veteran Charlie McCoy, a longtime Bob Dylan collaborator. The Killers have brushed against country and Americana before, most notably on Sam's Town in 2006 and Pressure Machine in 2021, but never as the entire artistic frame. Billboard reports Flowers cites Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings as the country touchstones his father played around the house in Utah. Per Deseret News, Flowers' own framing is plain: 'This is not me running away from rock and roll. I don't want to replace my old songs. I simply found room for more.' North American and UK and Ireland tours land in the fall.