News

One of the more notable mainstream rock bands of the 2000s, The Killers, is releasing their first greatest hits compilation.

Direct Hits collects 13 of the Las Vegas band’s best loved songs and adds two new tracks: “Shot At the Night,” produced by French electronic duo M83, and “Just Another Girl,” produced by longtime collaborator Stuart Price (who’s remixed many of their singles under the pseudonym Jacques Lu Cont/The Thin White Duke). A deluxe version adds three more tracks: “Be Still,” from their most recent album Battle Born (2012); the original demo for 2004 hit “Mr. Brightside” and a remix of 2006’s “When You Were Young” by Scottish producer Calvin Harris. Finally, a U.K. super deluxe version will add a DVD documentary and all of the single tracks on five 10″ records.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Leo22AXLEXg]

When The Killers burst onto the scene with Hot Fuss in 2004, critics were quick to hail their revivalist New Wave/post-punk sound and hooky dance-rock tracks like “Somebody Told Me,” “Mr. Brightside” and “All These Things That I’ve Done.” Follow-up Sam’s Town, which took influence from Bruce Springsteen and U2, remains one of the genre’s most polarizing follow-ups (no thanks to frontman Brandon Flowers telling the press it was “one of the best albums in the past 20 years” and “the album that keeps rock & roll afloat”), but the band’s commercial fortunes as an album and touring act have rarely struggled since, particularly in England, where all four of their studio albums have shot to the top of the charts.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGdGFtwCNBE]

Direct Hits will be out on November 11. Pre-order links are not yet available, but the track list (courtesy of NME) is below.

Direct Hits (Island, 2013)

1. Mr Brightside
2. Somebody Told Me
3. Smile Like You Mean It
4. All These Things That I’ve Done
5. When You Were Young
6. Read My Mind
7. For Reasons Unknown
8. Human
9. Spaceman
10. A Dustland Fairytale
11. Runaways
12. Miss Atomic Bomb
13. The Way It Was
14. Shot At the Night *
15. Just Another Girl *
16. Mr Brightside (Original Demo) **
17. When You Were Young (Calvin Harris Remix) **
18. Be Still **

Tracks 1-4 from Hot Fuss (Island, 2004)
Tracks 5-7 from Sam’s Town (Island, 2006)
Tracks 8-10 from Day & Age (Island, 2008)
Tracks 11-13 and 18 from Battle Born (Island, 2012)
* new track
** new/deluxe edition track