The maxim about solo records here at Contact Towers never lets us down: the reverse of Jim Steinman's compromise epic, we always find that two out of three are bad, an equation you can hang your hat on at our expense with any bookie you like, with of course an honourable nod of exception to the likes of Damon Albarn and Thom Yorke.

Brandon Flowers couldn't be any more solo at the moment it seems. Three years since The Killers were in meaningful action (a couple of upcoming US festival dates don't feel like hard currency), the guy who it was once written has nearly all of their creativity resting on his skinny shoulders is footloose and fancy free to follow up 2010's 'Flamingo', released during the group's original hiatus. A band who've gradually slipped into rock 'n' roll cliché fulfilment - from not speaking to each other to conversely making unspeakable albums like the 'Day & Age' - being the man who writes the songs that make their whole world sing doesn't seem to faze Flowers; on the contrary 'The Desired Effect' is written in bolder, more flamboyant strokes than its predecessor.
He remains, though, something of an enigma; the first Killers album borrowed so heavily from the British indie rock of his youth it felt like an homage, but here whilst a similar vintage is being uncorked era-wise, the principle is more home grown. This time our hero is channelling the bandana-clad, post-blue collar spritz of mid-eighties Springsteen, retranslating its hinky, oil rag etiquette for the social media age. This doesn't mean he spends 'The Desired Effect' awkwardly talking about killing the yellow man, but otherwise he's at pains to underline that his 21st century Babylon is no place for quitters, especially in the words of 'Between Me And You', a song staged in a place where true love is little more than a blood sacrifice to the demands of the American way.
Continue reading: Brandon Flowers - The Desired Effect Album Review