Brandon Flowers - The Desired Effect

Brandon Flowers
The Desired Effect
2015

The Desired Effect is probably the closest thing to a good Killers album that we have heard in awhile. Brandon Flowers despite the foot in mouth disease that he has never been able to kick in the media has put out a record of shiny pop tracks which He apparently thinks "All could be Singles.". He's wrong, but the album does feature some pretty solid tracks that Flowers has made some interesting choices with. The majority of the album, rightly attributed to the influence of producer Ariel Rechtshaid, leaves the guitars behind for 80s style synths and pianos. The record is large scale fill the room type of music, lots and lots going on, which actually suits Flowers vocals more than his scaled down first solo release. "Between Me and You", "Can't Deny My Love" and "Lonely Town" are the three most overtly 80s songs and though they do sound pretty good, they are so close to carbon copies it is a bit jarring. "Lonely Town" with it's chior-esque back up singers could easily be a Bruce Springsteen song, though the song writing itself is vastly inferior. Paying homage to the 80s is not in and of itself a bad thing, as is the trend these days, but straight up making an 80s track dates you and makes the music feel old.

The choice to eliminate the Guitars and Drums completely was interesting one, because Flowers knows (from his days with the Killers) that it is something He can make work. It is almost as if He wanted to run away completely in his solo work from what He did with the Band however the music suffers from him making that distinction. The opening track "Dreams Come True" is so big and bold that it sets a pace that the rest of the record can never keep up with or even get close to. You think you are about to hear some anthemic rock, but instead you get piano heavy love songs. Flowers never crosses into the Nate Ruess level of sappiness but He definitely circles the area on tracks like "Untangled Love". There is a combination of nodding your head to these tracks then at the same time trying not to cringe. It is a push and pull, sweet and sour with this record, but sometimes with Flowers and the Killer as well you have to suffer through some bad to get to the very good.

6 out of 10