Brandon Flowers – The Desired Effect
- Written by Kirsty Bates
The Desired Effect is the second solo album by Brandon Flowers and was released in the UK on 18th May 2015. Flowers has run his solo career and that as The Killers front man concurrently, with his solo album Flamingo in 2010 and The Killer's album Battle Born in 2012, and as a result it could be hard to separate the two. However, after the third play through of The Desired Effect it is clear that whilst there are echoes of The Killers in some tracks, Flowers has created an album that is uniquely different from his other work.
By collaborating with other musicians and vocalists each track has a distinctly different sound making the album an interesting listen from one song to the next and intrigues you, making you want to hear what the next track will treat you to. The vocals from both Flowers and his collaborators are strong throughout, with some great harmonies thrown into the mix.
The lead single from the album ‘Can't Deny My Love’ is brilliantly anthemic and one of those tracks that you have in your head for the rest of the day and can't stop singing. The other singles released from The Desired Effect; ‘Still Want You’, ‘I Can Change’ and ‘Lonely Town’ are all great but with a whole album full of such good tracks picking those to release must have been a tricky task. ‘I Can Change’ uses a sample from Supermode’s ‘Tell Me Why’ which was originally sampled from Bronski Beat’s ‘Smalltown Boy’ and ‘Why’ added to the vocals of Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant gives the track an old school vibe.
Although The Desired Effect is only Brandon Flowers’ second album, it is rumoured to be his final solo album which would be a great shame given how good this album is, with lots of great songs both musically and lyrically. This album has really had the desired effect.