Brandon Flowers, frontman and chief songwriter of The Killers, has shown an exponential kind of growth which will likely have fans watching to see where he takes his lyrics on all future endeavors. And that's saying something given...
Full Description
Brandon Flowers, frontman and chief songwriter of The Killers, has shown an exponential kind of growth which will likely have fans watching to see where he takes his lyrics on all future endeavors. And that's saying something given the, well, killer nature of the group's knack for surefire bait-and-tackle pop hooks and anthemic song arrangements that could easily draw attention away from his words.
His native Las Vegas makes no small contribution to Flowers' sensibilities. With the glitz 'n' glamour of the Strip on one side and the earthiness of the desert on the other, he mines both for tunes grounded in romance and myth. On the Killers' new wavey 2004 debut Hot Fuss Flowers plays the 21st century New Romantic, topping the quartet's grooving dance-pop with forays into clubs and bedrooms, affecting a cherub-faced innocence decorated by a mischievous sneer; a taunt like "Somebody told me you had a boyfriend/Who looked like a girlfriend/That I had in February of last year" is as much playground as pop. The lyrics of "Mr. Brightside" made for a compellingly creepy protagonist/alter ego, and the words to "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" capture a sexuality just crossing from adolescence into adult experience.
A number of new sources entered Flowers' orbit before 2006's Sam's Town, however. He discovered a greater array of American music -- most notably, he's acknowledged, Bruce Springsteen -- and that had as much impact on the sophomore album's sweeping wordscapes as it did on the epic, propulsive sonics that drive the music. This time Flowers and company find themselves "burning down the highway skyline/on the back of a hurricane" (lyrically mixing their Springsteen and Neil Young metaphors) and waking up on a roadside "in the land of the free ride." There's a brother was born on the Fourth of July, an eccentric "Uncle Jonny" and a father who's saluted for the simple heroics of raising and supporting a family in "Bling (Confession of a King)." Sam's Town itself is a casino, but one on the outskirts, away from the Strip, providing an overriding, and Springsteen-esque, sense of place to house Flowers' new lyrical scenarios.
But with two distinct approaches on the Killers' first two albums, it's anyone's guess where Flowers' will go next with his lyrics. But here's betting we'll be there to find out.
