It only seems fitting that The Killers - one of major rock bands of the 21st century,[and certainly the most successful rock band from the desert state of Nevada - return to various milieus of Las Vegas in their latest music video for "The Man": the first taste of their upcoming fifth album Wonderful, Wonderful (2017). No strangers to grandiosity and bombast, they up the ante in terms of the funkiness of their bassline and lay on the sonic effects to deliver a maximalist ode to alpha masculinity.
The band may have attributed the track to the jet-setting rockstar lifestyle they led during the height of their career in the mid 2000s, but the descriptors are general enough to accommodate a generic overblown American masculine ideal. 'Winning' era Charlie Sheen would undoubtedly approve. This man's got 'gas in the tank', 'money in the bank', 'skin in the game', 'a household name', is headed to the hall of fame, and is, naturally, 'USDA certified lean'. What's more ego-stroking than singing 'who's the man?' repeatedly? Immediately answering the question yourself.
Flowers' voice may not be entirely representative of the American macho mystique in sonic form, but he makes up for it in terms of personality and charisma. Aided by vocoder overdubs and a backup choir, his falsetto soars to great heights, with seemingly no plans to ever touch down on the ground again. The music video, which sees Flowers as several masculine archetypes in sin city - a womanizing tuxedo-clad piano player, an Elvis-type performer, a suave cowboy gambler, a trailer park owner, a retired extreme biker - who all eventually come to terms with the deflation of their respective egos, complements the track with a vision of sobering realism.
