I was crammed in a car with my parents on the way to visit my sister in North Carolina when someone told me that not only is The Killers, my favorite band, releasing a new album, “Wonderful Wonderful,” but one of the songs, “The Man,” has already released.

That car ride became much, much more enjoyable.

“Wonderful Wonderful,” released Sept. 22, is a great album that lines right alongside the band’s best, offering a set of enthralling, varied tunes I expect to stick with me for the rest of my life.

The alternative band hasn’t released an album since 2012’s “Battleborn,” a good album that unfortunately wasn’t up to the prior standard of quality set by the band. The lyrics became too literal, and much of the music strayed from the band’s unique sound. This new album puts the band back on track.

The best song on the album is for sure “The Man,” even though it’s quite different for the band. This goofy dance anthem is hilarious, and the grooving this song inspires in me is often embarrassing. Through ridiculous, grandiose description of himself, (like when he declares, belting, that he is “USDA-certified lean!”) the narrator makes an ass of himself and other self-obsessed tools. Simultaneously, the song mocks toxic masculinity while also providing some solid, aggressively fun music.

While “The Man” steals the show, a few others stick out. “The Calling” starts off with an attention-grabbing reading of scripture. “Run for Cover” is fast-paced, catchy and the most easily-likable of the album. I can’t make heads or tails of the line “he’s fake news,” but that’s okay.

“Tyson vs. Douglas” recounts the historic loss of Mike Tyson to Buster Douglas and uses that as a springboard for a more existential exploration of the imperfection of our heroes. The hammering chorus conjures up some palpable distress. “When I saw him go down, felt like somebody lied / I had to hold my breath till the coast was clear / When I saw him go down, felt like somebody lied / I had to close my eyes just to stop the tears.”

Sometimes the album is too slow for its own good. The title track is enjoyable, for sure, but it’s slow pace combined with its five-minute runtime makes it a little rough for a first track. “Some Kind of Love” isn’t bad, but the way it glacially plods along is a little boring.

The last song of the album, “Have All the Songs Been Written?,” is interesting. It ponders: “Have all the songs been written? Have all the truths been told? Has all the gas been siphoned? Do the banks still carry gold?”

As I was singing along to this song the other day, I looked at this section’s esteemed co-editor, Michael Richter, and said: “No, Brandon Flowers, all of the songs have not been written. You have many more songs to write.”

I was just trying to annoy Richter, but I hope it’s true.