“The best song we’ve ever written”: Have The Killers ever topped their 2007 classic
For over 20 years, The Killers have consistently turned out pop-rock hits. At this stage of their careers, they’ve successfully made the rare transition from the indie bubble of the 2000s to classic rock status.
‘Mr Brightside’ has found its cultural home in the United Kingdom, where it has over 3.5million sales, having been lovingly adopted by wedding DJs and budding weekend rockstars. ‘Human’ and ‘Somebody Told Me’ are equally scream-worthy modern classics, without which an indie party playlist would feel incomplete.
Founder and vocalist Brandon Flowers has often been the driving force behind this success. Building up a lengthy list of releases with The Killers and as a solo artist, Flowers is the voice and mind behind countless catchy favourites.
It seems an impossible task to pick between them, given their anthemic modern status – as evidenced by the fact that they decided to play a medley before the 2026 Champions League final rather than a ‘biggest hit’ – but in the past, the frontman has always cited the same definitive Killers track he loves the most.
Despite the overwhelming success of ‘Mr. Brightside’, the iconic hit doesn’t quite take the title of Flowers’ favourite. The frontman prefers ‘Read My Mind’ from the band’s second studio record, Sam’s Town, believing it to be his best song.
Opening with soft synths, the track prioritises Flowers’ distinctive vocals as he sings of suburban struggles. “The teenage queen, the loaded gun, the drop dead dream, the chosen one, a southern drawl, a world unseen, a city wall and a trampoline,” he sings over indie rock guitars. It’s atmospheric and visceral, but vitally singalong: The Killers at their best.
Flowers previously shared the making of the track in an interview with Rolling Stone, recalling, “I heard Alan say, ‘We’re trying to make ‘Peggy Sue’ into ‘With Or Without You,’ which came as a blow because he was basically saying my lyrics weren’t good enough. So I started singing different melodies, and in two hours it was a whole new song.”
With an unerring degree of pride, the typically modest frontman admitted, “I think it’s the best song we’ve ever written.” With a captivatingly existential vibe, it is easy to see why.
The pulsing track is about a restless young person caught between love, ambition, and the desire to escape a small-town life. It is a familiar battle imbittered by the difficulty to express yourself when you’re young, and the torturous tricks that play on the pursuit of love, ambition, and desire, in turn.
Cast into a song of vivid, dreamlike images, somehow Flowers’ clenched-fisted delivery undercuts the purring synth and turns a melodically sparse song about personal uncertainty into an anthem. I can’t think of many other songs that do that.
The frontman turned lacklustre lyricism into his favourite sonic creation, as he once stated in a Facebook Q&A: “My favourite song, I’ve not been shy about it, is ‘Read My Mind’. It doesn’t matter if we’re in a bar or an arena or a stadium or a festival or to 50 people, when ‘Read My Mind’ starts, the room changes.”
That phenomenon certainly isn’t exclusive to ‘Read My Mind’ – in fact, The Killers seem to have mastered it. The first twangs of ‘Mr Brightside’ alone sparks excitement, whether in a function room or a stadium.
Flowers went on to express the strange feeling of pride and connection to one of his own songs, adding, “I guess it’s strange to have reverence for something that you had a part in creating but I guess I’m just thankful for that song” – a gratitude many Killers fans would share. Have they ever topped it?
Listen to ‘Read My Mind’, The Killers song Brandon Flowers loves most, below.
