Brandon Flowers has revealed how he would rank some of The Killers' most iconic songs, and his verdict on the band's biggest hit may surprise fans. In a blind-ranking video, the frontman was asked to order five tracks from the group's discography without knowing which song would come up next.
The first track presented was 2006's «When You Were Young.» Flowers said the band remains «grateful for» the song, recalling the anxiety surrounding their second album after the success of their debut, «Hot Fuss.» «The way the room looked and the way it felt when 'When You Were Young' started to sizzle, I think we knew we were going to be OK,» he said.
Next came «Human,» a song Flowers worked on in London while touring for «Sam's Town.» He then evaluated «The Man,» from 2017's «Wonderful Wonderful,» which he said «sort of saved» that album but would not take the top spot on his list. The «Sam's Town» classic «Read My Mind» ranked high, though Flowers admitted he «secretly, in my heart think 'All These Things That I've Done' might be better sometimes.»
He closed the ranking with «Mr. Brightside,» arguably the band's most recognizable song. «It's a song that is very much associated with the band, you may have heard of it,» he joked. Flowers then explained the track was written in response to Oasis' «Don't Look Back In Anger.» «I had seen Oasis a few months before I met Dave Keuning, and I was blown away by the reception that it got at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada,» he said. «There was something different, and I was like, 'I want that.'»
The blind-ranking exercise arrives ahead of Flowers' solo tour across the UK and Ireland, which begins this week at the O2 Academy in Bournemouth. He will perform at London's Royal Albert Hall before heading to Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and other cities, concluding at the Olympia in Dublin on October 27.
The tour supports his latest solo album, «Thrasher,» released in August. The record received a four-star review, with praise for how far Flowers has come as a writer away from the «glitz and arena pomp» of The Killers. The ranking offers a rare look at how the frontman views his own catalog, placing one of rock's most enduring anthems within a personal hierarchy shaped by memory, gratitude and the band's early ambitions.