Album Review – “Flamingo” By Brandon Flowers (Debut Solo Album) – 2oceansvibe News

Album Review – “Flamingo” By Brandon Flowers (Debut Solo Album)

04 Oct 2010 by Jasmine Stone in Album Reviews, Music
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I am in a state of shock as I write this. I was just trying to remind myself when the Killer’s debut album, Hot Fuss, was released and Wikipedia told me it was 2004! As in nearly seven years ago. I dared Wiki to try lying to me one more time but it promised me it was telling the truth. “Why would I lie?” it asked. I had no good answer.

Shit, we really are hurtling towards our graves at an alarming rate. There is not a second to waste. What ever it is you’re doing, make sure you’re having the time of your short life. If your boss is being petty and unrealistically demanding, grab him or her by the shoulders and shake them violently while screaming, “For God’s sake get a hold of yourself. We’re all going to die!”

That should help him/her to relax, see the bigger picture and put things in perspective. “It’s just a ride” as the legendary Bill Hicks once said. I think what he meant was, life is short, make the most of it, don’t take it too seriously and if, at any point, you find it all a bit scary and overwhelming, then you’re definitely doing something wrong. The Killers song, Human, is about something similar I believe. Now dat is sum deep shit right dare. Boo-yah!

The brilliance of Hot Fuss still feels quite fresh in my mind. I don’t think there was a bad note on that album, let alone a bad song. It makes me want to reminisce about a classic summer spent in London in ’05 – Hot Fuss was the soundtrack.

A bit of nostalgia seems apt when talking about Brandon Flowers. The beautiful song, Read My Mind, from Sam’s Town, has the line, “The good old days, the honest man, the restless heart, the promised land” and he’s doing it again in his new solo album, Flamingo, with lines like, “Some people think that it’s best to refrain from the conventions of old-fashioned love.”

In the soaring opening track, Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, he could have referred to the song’s characters as hookers, junkies and degenerate gamblers, but where’s the romance in that? To storytellers like Flowers (and Bruce Springsteen) they’re “dreamers”, “harlots” and “little girls from Tennessee”.
It’s a great song. It’s one of those “love letters” that artists like to write to their cities: Empire State of Mind (Keys/JayZ), New York State of Mind (Joel) and Under the Bridge (Chili Peppers). Unlike Keys/JayZ though, who seem to think that New York can do no wrong, Flowers’ tune is an anthem to all the broken souls – summed up superbly with the refrain, “Didn’t nobody tell you the house will always win?” This isn’t a “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” nudge, nudge, wink, wink schtick. To a poetic soul like Flowers, the “Fear & Loathing” is far more worthy of all the attention.

Elsewhere on Flamingo, how could we ignore the recent hit, Crossfire – a stadium-filler if ever there was one. It’s just an absolute corker. Don’t you just love the way that bass line kicks in at the beginning? There are of course other great tracks – Magdalena, Only the Young and Was it Something I Said? have instant appeal. Others are growers, like Hard Enough, which is a duet with singer/songwriter Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley – a great little band that split in ’08.

This album doesn’t sound like a lead singer indulging his every whim. It’s really another Killers record with material originally written for the band, who decided they needed a break after a gruelling tour. Flowers is made of sterner stuff though, and realising that life is short, as I have just done, he carried on. It doesn’t reach Hot Fuss’s levels of near perfection, but if you love this guy’s soulful vocals and poetic slant on these lives that are flashing before our eyes, then you’re going to dig this record. Life’s too short not to give it a try.