Songfacts®:

• This song features the legendary Rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Lou Reed. Q magazine January 2008 asked The Killers if they were scared when they met the notoriously grumpy Reed. Frontman Brandon Flowers replied, "You tend to be respectful. It's a respectful fear. It took a day to break the ice with him. The second day of recording was a lot nicer than the first - on the first day we were all really stiff. It's funny because you refer to him as "Lou Reed," not "Lou." I remember somebody came into the studio. They could only stay in the room with him for 2 minutes. They left saying, "Lou Reed's really freaking me out."
  
  Guitarist Dave Keuning added: "He's got his own vibe. We asked him to work on 'Tranquilize' with us. We sent him the track and he said yes. It was a real honor, but we've learnt that if you try asking, it works out sometimes."
  
  On a similar vein Flowers revealed to the Daily Mail December 7, 2007: "At first, I felt that Lou was testing us. But after a day, I think we passed the test. He wanted to know whether we were using real drums. Thankfully we were, so that was fine. Those were the sorts of things he hounded us on. We had to work for his approval, but in the end he was great."
• Flowers told the New Musical Express October 20, 2007: "It's one of our more depressing songs, there's a desperation to it, but there's light at the end of the tunnel."
• This won Best International Alternative/Indie Track at NME's first ever USA awards. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Kylie - Ventura, CA
• The lyrics, "Acid rain, when Abel looked up at Cain, we began the weeping and wailing," refer to biblical brothers Cain and Abel, sons of Adam and Eve. As told in Genesis, Cain murdered Abel in a jealous rage after God preferred Abel's offering to his own.