Boys To Men

- Liz Pelly

“How did I get here?” It’s the question that singer-keyboardist Brandon Flowers found himself asking while working on the most tender moments of Wonderful Wonderful, The Killers’ fifth full-length, released late last month. For answers, he went back to the beginning, dissecting the snotty, swaggering 21-year-old he was when the band started working on its hit-filled debut, Hot Fuss. He channeled that character for Wonderful Wonderful ’s first single, “The Man.” “I’ve got gas in the tank/ I’ve got money in the bank/ I’ve got news for you, baby: You’re looking at the man,” he sings sarcastically over a late-night disco beat.

“When we first started, I was really insecure,” Flowers says, sitting with drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. in a hotel room in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood. “I was performing. It wasn’t really me. I did feel like I was God’s gift,” he admits, laughing. “When you’re growing up, you have this perception of what it is to be a man. It usually revolves around being tough, and bringing home the bacon, and being suave. And what I’ve come to find is that to be a real man you have to have a lot more empathy and compassion.” The single attempts to reconcile those realizations, though its humor makes it an outlier on the pointedly mature album.

The Killers have been together for over 15 years, so it’s appropriate that