Listen to Brandon Flowers’ powerful new track ‘Tiger’s Blood’

Brandon Flowers has released another solo song titled ‘Tiger’s Blood’. Listen to the single below.

The song provides the third preview of the Killers singer’s third solo record, ‘Thrasher’. The album will arrive through Island on August 21. Flowers introduced the project with ‘Plans’ in June, followed by ‘Paradise’ last month.

‘Tiger’s Blood’ delivers an energetic and nostalgic anthem reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen, bringing a more forceful sound than the album’s first two singles.

During the expansive chorus, Flowers sings: “The last thing that I heard/ You were doing OK/ We took different roads to heal the hurt/ Not fade away.” He continues: “The things that we can’t explain/ Roll on like a runaway train/ Into the fire and out of the frame/ Wild and gone like a runaway train.”

Other parts of the song find him looking back on a “disposable Kodak memory” while recalling a “new kid in the county”.

Flowers recently performed ‘Tiger’s Blood’ for the first time at Newport Folk Festival. His appearance also included several Killers favourites, along with performances featuring Lucy Dacus and Nathaniel Rateliff.

Created in Nashville, ‘Thrasher’ draws inspiration from country music and reunites Flowers with his regular producers Shawn Everett and Jonathan Rado. Guitarist David Rawlings and pedal steel musician Bruce Bouton also contributed, alongside harmonica player Charlie McCoy, now 85, who appeared on all four of Bob Dylan’s Nashville albums.

The forthcoming record revisits Flowers’ childhood in the small Utah town of Nephi. Across the project, he remembers travelling through the countryside with his father while listening to Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

Brandon Flowers ‘Thrasher’ artwork. CREDIT: Press

‘Thrasher’ is expected to present Flowers at his most open and emotionally exposed as he examines a rarely discussed period of his life and reflects on the experiences that shaped him.

Flowers previously explained: “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found my way back to my father’s music – ‘Country-Western’ (as he called it) – and discovered that the stories I carry really feel most at home in the skin of this beautiful American tradition.”

Later this year, Flowers will support ‘Thrasher’ with solo concerts across the UK, Ireland and North America. The schedule includes an October appearance at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Remaining tickets are available here for the UK and Ireland and here for North America.

During an interview with NME last year, Flowers revealed that he was developing two solo records. He described the first project as a “step backwards” from his 2015 album ‘The Desired Effect’.

“It’s more in the [2010 debut] ‘Flamingo’ direction,” he explained. “I made two South West records, if you want to know the truth. One is a romantic South West record, and the other is a narrative South West record which picks up where ‘Pressure Machine’ left off.

“I’m thrilled about both of them, and they’ll both come out before the next Killers record – but I’m thrilled about the next Killers record.”

Discussing the future of the Las Vegas group, Flowers told NME that it remained “a little too early to say” what direction their next chapter might take.

He did confirm that the band would move away from the polished electronic sound heard on their recent singles produced by Stuart Price. Those tracks included ‘Boy’, ‘Your Side Of Town’ and ‘Spirit’, which appeared on the greatest hits collection ‘Rebel Diamonds’.

“We will not put it out unless it is the best,” Flowers said. “We’ve already discussed it. It’s gotta be so good or it’s not worth it.” He also confirmed that the upcoming material would involve “all four members” following their reunion for the 2024 song ‘Bright Lights’.

‘Boy’, ‘Your Side Of Town’ and ‘Spirit’ were originally planned for another Killers album. However, the band abandoned that project after deciding it did not feel “authentic”.

Elsewhere, Flowers recently admitted that he has thought about leaving music behind. He explained: “I’m really going through it right now: how much longer do I want to do this, what does it mean, why am I doing it anyway?”

Speaking with The Times in 2023, Flowers said he was facing a “crisis” while trying to determine the next musical direction for The Killers.