music

Music Coming Soon

Brandon Flowers - Flamingo

Inextricably tied to Vegas in both showmanship and ideology, 'Flamingo' is a bombastic 10-track collection of stadium-ready songs that runs the gamut from expert pop executions and forlorn electro dirges to gospel tunes and even blues-tinged rock (read: pedal steel, and plenty of it). 'Jilted Lovers and Broken Hearts', an upbeat arena rocker with the heartbeat of a dancefloor classic, employs gambling as an epic metaphor: "I followed you through the darkness/ I followed you through the cold/ woman, I can tell you one thing/ you're going to wish you could go back and fold."

Meanwhile 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' doesn't make Las Vegas sound very fabulous at all. Indeed, there’s also denial, perfidy, absolution, spirituality and the limits of faith—each of which is explored in the album's other tracks. Flowers transforms intellectual concepts into adrenaline overdrive on 'Crossfire'; channels Roy Orbison's luminous falsetto to unnerving effect in 'Playing With Fire'; and looks for second chances on 'Only the Young', in which he offers the following haunting prayer: "Redemption, keep my covers clean tonight."

Feeling "a little bit naked" working without The Killers, he enlisted production help from a series of renowned talents: Daniel Lanois, Brendan O'Brien and Stuart Price (who produced The Killers' 'Day and Age'). He also invited Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis, whom he calls "a daughter of Vegas", to guest on the song 'Hard Enough'.

Together they made an album Flowers says he's proud of, one that stretches his musical horizons.