THEY MADE the most impressive start of any rock band in the last 20 years. The first five tracks of The Killers’ debut album, “Hot Fuss” (2004), were deadly. A Las Vegas outfit inspired by the edgy British synth-pop of the 1980s—they named themselves after a fictional group from a music video by New Order—their keyboards warbled, their bass lines throbbed and their guitars growled. In Brandon Flowers they had a haughty, eyeliner-wearing frontman with a honeyed voice. His songs were dark and catchy, about murdering lovers and spying on other people’s boyfriends.

As is often the case with early hits, they were written over several years but recorded hastily, which meant that they were both well-honed and raw. British listeners loved them: only three albums released in the 21st century have spent more time in the charts, and no tune in history has appeared for more weeks than “Mr. Brightside”. Anybody born in the last 30 years seems to know the words automatically, and the 1980s vibes appealed to dads, too. (Harry and Paul, a British comedy duo, once played two eminent surgeons humming along to “Somebody Told Me” in theatre.)

Thirteen years and four albums later, The Killers are almost unrecognisable. Their fifth record, “Wonderful Wonderful”, which was released on September 22nd, is a meditative, polished affair. Mr Flowers’ latest lyrics have four themes: his wife’s struggle with her mental health, his own anxieties about being a father, the importance of his Mormon faith (including a Biblical reading from Woody Harrelson), and his creative difficulties. The Killers might have started by mimicking New Order, but they also promised in 2004 that they would become “the American U2”. This album, which feels like an extended confession, completes that process: the title of the final track, “Have All the Songs Been Written?”, comes from an email conversation with Bono. Mr Flowers also boasts of the times he performed with Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen, and features a guitar solo from Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler.

The evolutionary nature of the band was clear by the second album. “Sam’s Town” (2006) abandoned the morbid post-punk vignettes for Springsteen-esque ballads about one-horse towns. Critics mocked them, but the songs retained the roughness and searing hooks of the first record, and were just as popular with fans. From then on, however, the music started to mellow. For “Day & Age” (2008), Mr Flowers often overdubbed his voice with harmonies, which made his singing feel less urgent. The accompanying instruments were increasingly drowned out by electronic sounds. The lyrics became more abstract, too, musing about humans and spacemen. The hiatuses grew longer, as each member pursued solo projects: four years for “Battle Born” (2012), then another five for “Wonderful Wonderful”. Mark Stoermer and Dave Keuning, the bass and guitar players, gave up touring altogether, which means that only half of the original line-up plays at gigs.

Yet concert-goers are not short-changed. Mr Flowers remains the star attraction, and he knows that the old tunes are the favourites (see chart). The first two albums provided seven of the ten most-played songs on the tour for “Battle Born”, and five of the band’s six most-streamed tracks on Spotify. Indeed, of the rock bands that have broken onto the scene in the past two decades, only one has had more early hits (Linkin Park) and only one has had fewer subsequent successes (MGMT). A band can prolong its fortunes by adapting to changing music tastes, as Coldplay have done: the club-oriented singles of recent years are a far cry from the moody acoustic numbers that first brought Chris Martin fame. In the case of The Killers, however, the dance music of recent years seems to have had the opposite effect.

Still, there are things that fans of the old Killers will like about “Wonderful Wonderful”. The lyrics aren’t as morbid as those on “Hot Fuss” (though “Shadowplay”, a Joy Division cover about “assassins” and “acting out your own death”, has returned to the regular touring setlist). But they do have a different kind of personal darkness. The title is meant to be ironic, and the eponymous track is a dystopian one. Among the softer pieces and electronic numbers are two guitar-driven songs with the sort of stadium-filling choruses that have been missing for a decade: “Tyson vs Douglas” and “Run for Cover” (the latter of which was started in 2008 but never finished). Early data suggest that the band may be about to score their first ever number-one album in the United States, and their fifth such achievement in Britain. The Killers might have softened, but there is plenty of life in them yet.