It might not feel like it was all that long ago since the release of Hot Fuss and the club night takeovers of Mr Brightside, Somebody Told Me, All These Things That I’ve Done and Smile Like You Mean it, but next year will be its tenth anniversary and in that time The Killers have released a total of four studio albums. To condense all of that down to their most impactful tracks Brandon Flowers, Dave Keuning, Mark Stoemer and Ronnie Vannucci, Jr. have recently announced the release of Direct Hits to contain their “best of” tracks for late comers to the party.
However, as The Rolling Stones did recently with Doom and Gloom and One More Shot on GRRR!, The Killers have also thrown in a couple of new songs into the mix to give the compilation some appeal to existing fans that already own Hot Fuss, Sam’s Town, Day & Age and Battle Born. The two new tracks include their latest single, Shot At The Night, which you can listen to below, and a second new song for the album called Just Another Girl.
Direct Hits is the band’s second compilation release, following 2007’s Sawdust, which saw them release a bit of a random collection of singles, b-side tracks, early songs and remixes. The upcoming release is a whole different beast focusing mostly on the biggest and best tracks they’ve created, as the name would suggest.
The tracklist below includes 13 singles out of the 15 songs that have made it into the standard version of the compilation album. As well as past hits, Mr Brightside, When You Were Young and Human, the upcoming album includes their latest single, Shot At The Night, which is already doing the rounds on the radio after it was leaked by the band in a tweet of a picture containing Morse code of the song title.
The only song from the previous four studio albums that has made it onto Direct Hits without being previously released as a single is Battle Born’s The Way It Was. In addition to the standard version, there will also be a Delux Edition of the greatest hits album, which will feature the original demo of Mr Brightside, the Calvin Harris remix of When You Were Young and Be Still from Battle Born.
Direct Hits is scheduled for release on the 11th November 2013. The single, Shot At The Night, is classic eighties synth pop with Brandon Flowers’ trademark big vocals, fitting in well on the back of the Battle Born closing tracks on the chronologically sequenced track list.
Direct Hits track list:
1. Mr. Brightside – Hot Fuss
2. Somebody Told Me – Hot Fuss
3. Smile Like You Mean It – Hot Fuss
4. All These Things That I’ve Done – Hot Fuss
5. When You Were Young – Sam’s Town
6. Read My Mind – Sam’s Town
7. For Reasons Unknown – Sam’s Town
8. Human – Day & Age
9. Spaceman – Day & Age
10. A Dustland Fairytale – Day & Age
11. Runaways – Battle Born
12. Miss Atomic Bomb – Battle Born
13. The Way It Was – Battle Born
14. Shot at the Night – New single
15. Just Another Girl – New track
Deluxe edition bonus tracks:
16. Mr. Brightside – Original Demo
17. When You Were Young – Calvin Harris Remix
18. Be Still – Battle Born
