Album of the Week: Brandon Flowers Flamingo
By Sasha Patpatia
If you are a fan of the Las Vegas rock band The Killers, you probably know all about frontman Brandon Flowers, and his newly conceived solo career. Like most groups, once the ball gets rolling and the fans start lining up, there is bound to be a dispatch of some sort, and in most cases, it usually results in a member going solo. This move can involve a collaboration with different musicians or a change in style or sound, but on Flamingo, Flower’s upcoming album, the change is not so different after all.
Anyone who has already listened to the album (which was leaked online just a few days ago) can tell you that it’s no different than a Killers album. You can pretty much bank on the knowledge that this is The Killers, minus Ronnie Vannucci, Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer. Without much experimental purpose, what was the reason Flowers decided to march down his own path?
“Crossfire,” the album’s single, is a typical rock anthem with a powerful and catchy chorus, accompanied by a music video that features the stunning Charlize Theron saving Flowers from a pack of ninjas. Other tracks on the album are intentionally more synth-pop than indie rock, a difference that is noticeable between The Killers’ albums and Flamingo. “Hard Enough,” the track featuring Jenny Lewis, is twangy and catchy, with the usual emotional lyrics you can find on most of the other tracks.
With a release date set for September 14th, check out reviews of the album before you run out to get your copy:
The Good:
- The Independent: “No chances were taken with the commercial viability of the sound, and three trusty big-hitter producers have been brought in: Stuart Price (Madonna et al), Daniel Lanois (U2 et al) and Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam et al). The result is an album which has the epic quality you’d expect from the second and third, and the electronic fairy dust you’d expect from the first” – Simon Price
- MusicOMH: “Urgency is usually an important factor in music, but somehow Flowers succeeds in constructing songs that don’t have a definitive path. Songs change direction quickly; most choruses are boosted with more instruments and more volume but without build-ups before or decrescendos afterwards. The album has an interesting production that extends through slow-burning ballads like Crossfire and into upbeat pop tunes like Was It Something I Said?, which bounces along with goofy keyboards that sound like they’re taken straight from an old video game” – Justin de la Cruz
The Bad:
- Spin: “Minimized guitar bluster emphasizes his ample vocal assets, but Flowers wilts when the sunny tempos subside, revealing himself to be an AOR softie. Most tunes lack his usual group’s catchiness; wordy, self-consciously mythic lyrics convolute what melodies there are. The Lou Reed-y final track “Swallow It” flirtatiously underplays what’s often overstated elsewhere, and suggests a path otherwise not taken” - Barry Walters
- Drowned in Sound: “Despite a team of producers, including Day and Age‘s Stuart Price and U2 cohort Daniel Lanois standing in for the other three, it’s pretty darn obvious that these songs were written to be on a Killers album. There are no huge musical surprises. In fact if anything Flamingo feels like it would be a pretty natural progression for The Killers; as Sam’s Town saw them bulk up the anglo-centric tendencies of Hot Fuss with some All American Boss-inspired bombast and Day and Age saw them lean a little further towards their debut again, Flamingo would have seen them go American again, specifically through a nice big dollop of country schmaltz” – Neil Ashman
The In-Between:
- The Music Fix: “The former front man is heading on his way to his hometown of Las Vegas; a city built for the confectionery of the senses, and one that Flowers’ solo debut presents as a neon stick of rock, engraved with all of his signature vocal and lyrical iridescence. In many respects you can think of Flamingo as Brandon Flowers’ very own sight-seeing tour of the so-called ‘Sin City’, with each track marking the bus stops of his memories along the way” – Jade Tullett
- The Scotsman: “The songs are all Flowers’ work, so there’s clearly some shared DNA with the Killers, but Flamingo is distinct from the band’s braying indie rock anthems. As well as turning up the dial on those 80s FM rock references, with the emphasis on choruses you can drive to, and even adding a smattering of rootsy instrumentation, both of which you can hear on taster single Crossfire, there is no mistaking the influence of one of the three producers he chose to work with” – Fiona Shepherd
Flamingo is available on Amazon for $9.99.
Flamingo isn’t the only upcoming album release we are excited for. If Flowers doesn’t float your boat, here are some more upcoming albums:
