Music: The Killers: Battle Born

This week's music choice is surely one to be listening to whilst streaming down a deserted highway, home far behind and Vegas in your sights. But however much Killers front man, Brandon Flowers, may want us to be enjoying the band's new album whilst on an epic American road trip, it's just not a feasible dream for most of us to achieve within the next few weeks. But perhaps imagination will have to do, and the images that Battle Born evokes are certainly powerful enough to whisk you off to the desolate deserts and neon lights of America's one and only Nevada.

After Brandon Flowers' frankly underwhelming attempt at a solo album, the Killers return triumphant to rock's centre stage with their new album, Battle Born. Flowers is back in full throttle, though not to quite the same effect as he produced on Sam's Town, the band's 2006 smasher. The lyrics are that much more clichéd and the power chords lacking the same gusto, but you can't say they haven't tried. Church choirs, synths that could fill arenas, and crescendo-ing percussion are all crammed into 50 minutes - as well as a few slower numbers in the shape of Be Still and Here With Me, showcasing the band's power ballad skills.

As you may expect from the above description, reviews are already abounding with comparisons to Springsteen and the Eagles. Metaphor-rich lyrics steer the album towards the ridiculous, whilst the album's producer list reads like Bono's speed dial - Daniel Lanois (producer of U2's The Joshua Tree amongst others) and Morrissey's main man, Steve Lillywhite, being among the most notable mentions. No surprise that most of the choruses will plain knock your socks off and leave you absent-mindedly humming the rifts out of the car window.

Though nothing on their previous classics Mr Brightside or When You Were Young , this album's best attempt is new single Runaways, which combines that quintessential Killers sound with huge power chords, dramatic build-ups to explosive choruses and Flowers at his very best, belting out 'We can wait till tomorrow' with everything he's got. So roll down the windows of that imaginary open-top Cadillac (if you're struggling, check out the album cover, which should give you some inspiration on that front), and prepare to learn every single nonsensical word that Battle Born has to offer.

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