The Killers: Rebel Diamonds - 2003-2023 (2LP) [ISLAND RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set comes in a gatefold jacket, pressed in Germany. It gathers songs from all seven studio albums, every one of which topped the UK chart, and the collection itself reached the UK top 10.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in Germany

About the album

Las Vegas has no shortage of greatest-hits acts, but few of them wrote the hits in a garage and a university band room between midnight and four in the morning. Brandon Flowers answered Dave Keuning's newspaper ad in 2001, and the four-track tape Keuning handed over at their first meeting already held an early riff of "Mr. Brightside." Ronnie Vannucci Jr. and Mark Stoermer completed the lineup the following year.

Rebel Diamonds runs roughly in order from there. "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine," "Somebody Told Me" and "All These Things That I've Done" bring back the Hot Fuss days, "When You Were Young" and "Read My Mind" go widescreen, "Human" and "A Dustland Fairytale" glitter, and "Runaways," "The Man" and "Caution" carry the band into the arenas. The heartland storytelling of "Quiet Town" and "Dying Breed" follows, and the 2022 singles "Boy" and "Your Side of Town" sit near the end.

The band took the name from a fictional group in New Order's "Crystal" video and the marquee logo from an Elvis Presley album cover, and they've headlined Glastonbury twice since. Somewhere in Las Vegas the bar Sasha's, where they held their label showcase in 2003, deserves a plaque; we've written a strongly worded letter to the council.

Also at Kops: more The Killers on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Island, the 2023 compilation.