Direct Hits (The Killers album)
Direct Hits is a greatest hits album by American rock band the Killers. It was released on November 11, 2013, by Island Records. The album includes tracks from the band's first four studio albums and features two new tracks—"Shot at the Night" and "Just Another Girl", produced by Anthony Gonzalez of M83 and Stuart Price, respectively.
Direct Hits
November 11, 2013
2001–2013
- The Hearse (Berkeley, California)
- Cornerstone (Los Angeles, California)
- Studio at the Palms (Las Vegas, Nevada)
- Criterion (London)
- Battle Born (Las Vegas, Nevada)
- Blackbird (Nashville, Tennessee)
61:13
- Flood
- Anthony Gonzalez
- the Killers
- Steve Lillywhite
- Alan Moulder
- Brendan O'Brien
- Stuart Price
- Jeff Saltzman
Regarding the album's release, vocalist Brandon Flowers noted, "This record feels like a great way to clean everything up and move onto the next thing."[1]
Background and recording[edit]
In 2013, during the band's Battle Born World Tour, the Killers began recording new material for a possible single release or new studio album. In June 2013, drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. noted, "[We're] not just [recording] demos. Real recordings. I mean, you never know what it's gonna be, I guess. But we have our engineer, and we're working with a couple of surprise guests, in the producer capacity. Some of it is sounding really cool. We can be guilty of making things so ornate, and sometimes that's a bad thing. So I always have conversations with Brandon [Flowers] about working from a smaller palette, simplifying things. If these new tracks develop a theme, a common thread, then that could be the start of something."[2] Guitarist Dave Keuning elaborated, "I'm not saying a new album is going to come out or anything like that. But sometimes people just put out songs or it gets used for some kind of compilation. We'd like to get a new song out there soon."[3]
The track "Shot at the Night" was produced by Anthony Gonzalez of French band M83, who had previously supported the Killers on their Day & Age World Tour. The band's label, Island Records, subsequently suggested Gonzalez as a possible producer for the band, following the success of M83's sixth studio album, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (2011). Guitarist Dave Keuning noted, "There was a mutual thing like, 'Yeah we think he's good. We'll try him out.' It's something we finally agreed with our label on."[4] Regarding the band's collaboration with Gonzalez, Flowers stated, "He's one of these new school producers. He's a technical wizard, but you can't discount his musicality. A lot of people do, because of the involvement of computers, but he's a real musician, too. He and Stuart Price may be known for working on the digital side of things, but they're also two of the most musical guys I've ever met."[1]
Stuart Price, who had previously worked with the band on both their third studio album, Day & Age (2008), and on the Battle Born (2012) track, "Miss Atomic Bomb", produced the second of the two new songs, "Just Another Girl". Flowers noted, "[Stuart Price has] become like my brother now: we work well together, and I'm always impressed with his musicality and his taste. It's in a different vein from 'Shot At The Night', it's more of a narrative. You're 'in' the song in a different way."[5]
Some critics have suggested the band released the album in order to fulfill a contractual obligation.[6]
Title[edit]
According to vocalist Brandon Flowers, Direct Hits was originally entitled Cream. He notes, "The initial idea, which maybe was better, was Cream. It was my idea. It was a play on the fact that we put out a B-sides compilation called Sawdust. And so it made sense to call the ones that were our best Cream." Flowers' original idea for the album sleeve featured the Hoover Dam and a reservoir of cream.[7]