During this time, frontman Brandon Flowers and bassist Mark Stoermer released solo albums, Flamingo (2010) and Another Life (2011), respectively, while drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. released a studio album with his side-project, Big Talk, and recorded with Mt.

[5][6] Initial sessions were strained, with Flowers noting that the band members spent "about a week just eyeballing each other in a room.

"[4] The composition of the album's first single, "Runaways", marked a turning point in their reunion, with Flowers noting: "That and 'Miss Atomic Bomb' were the backbone of this record.

[7] Initially, the band had wanted to work with just one, but scheduling difficulties led to the need for multiple producers.

[13] Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly wrote: The Killers themselves have always gone for the gold, boldly aiming to fill exotic stadiums with full-throated anthems about big ideas.

Like the band's previous output, Battle Born only knows how to be epic: Opener "Flesh and Bone" begins as a glitchy Soft Cell throwback before rapidly expanding into a glorious fireworks-and-brimstone sermon, while "Miss Atomic Bomb" drives into the desert sunset in a convertible fueled by echoey guitars and glistening-eyed nostalgia.

[16]The Guardian's Kate Mossman gave the album three out of five stars, saying: With stagey soundscapes more Meat Loaf than Springsteen, and lines overloaded with postcard imagery ("Your star-spangled heart took a train for the coast"), you struggle to find the energy till the third or fourth listen, when "Heart of a Girl" (co-written with Daniel Lanois) and "From Here on Out" (which sounds just like the Eagles) reveal themselves to be the sweetest, most sincere explorations of a kind of US rock that will always raise hairs on the necks of those who like this sort of thing.

[25] Battle Born debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200, selling 113,000 copies in its opening week.