The Killers have shared an animated video for the Pressure Machine song “Runaway Horses,” which features backing vocals from Phoebe Bridgers.
The visuals depict the “small town girl” from the song’s lyrics, shown on the screen of a drive-in movie theater located in front of a mountain range. It later segues into the same girl watching horses race across the screen next to a boy.
Pressure Machine was released in August and was inspired by The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers’ childhood in the small town of Nephi, Utah, and the people he grew up around. The songs on the record are interspersed with soundbites from current Nephi residents and “Runaway Horses” opens with a woman reminisces about the town’s traditional “youth stampede” event.
The album detailed the stories of past townspeople, including a teenage couple who were killed by a train and a gay teenager struggling with their mental health. It also reflected on the opioid epidemic that is still affecting the town and America in general.
Bridgers marked the only collaboration on the record, which arrived almost exactly one year after the band’s previous release, Imploding The Mirage. Flowers previously told NME that he had become a fan of the artist after hearing her 2017 single “Funeral” on a college public radio station.
“She has a little bit of Wild West in her,” he said of why he wanted to work with her on “Runaway Horses”. “She has rodeo people in her bloodline. She brought a sadness to the song that’s integral to it, but also inherent in her. It was the perfect combination.”
Pressure Machine also saw the return of guitarist Dave Keuning, who had not performed on a Killers record since 2017’s Wonderful Wonderful.
The band played “Runaway Horses” on Jimmy Kimmel Live in the days after the album’s release. They performed the rendition of the song on a stage surrounded by photo frames and trophies.
