Claude says:Brandon Flowers wrote these lyrics first — a full set of scenes from his childhood in Nephi, Utah — then built the music around them, pulling from Springsteen's heartland rock and the small-town portraits in Steinbeck and Sherwood Anderson. The result is their quietest, most stripped-down record, a folk-rock turn that topped the US folk chart and gave Dave Keuning a reason to come back into the studio. You got it right away in September 2021, circled back a couple times over the next few years, then went deep starting in late 2024 — "Quiet Town," "Cody," and "West Hills" are the anchors, but you've worked through the whole thing.