Brandon Flowers is hard to pin down as a pop star, in part because he's still playing at being a pop star. After he stepped into the limelight on the Killers’ still-terrific debut at 22-years-old, he made three more records with his band full of bona fide arena anthems as well as cheap knock-offs that substitute as arena anthems. The latter is why it's advisable to skip over most of his 2010 solo debut Flamingos, if only because the beige, desert-tinged production says and adds very little to his songwriting. The album is clunky and rote even by the Flowers metric.
But with the help of Grammy-winning producer Ariel Rechtshaid, The Desired Effect gives Flowers new backdrops to play around in. Rechtshaid doesn’t mine the '80s and '90s for inspiration like he's done for Haim, Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen, and many others recently. Instead, he straight up jacks that sound, aiming directly at those fond of the calmer side of Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, or Peter Gabriel. Electric guitars are swapped out for chugging piano lines, hand-clap snares, and melismas sung by anonymous background singers; never mind the inclusion of special guest Bruce Hornsby, a song that samples Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy" and features Neil Tennant on vocals, and floppy disc after floppy disc worth of synth patches. Credit to Rechtshaid, the album’s big and luxe sound fits Flowers' big and luxe voice. When they sync up in this milieu, against all odds, it works really well.
Above these glossy textures, Flowers doubles down on his earnest goobery, which actually brings him closer to this ideal pop star image he's been chasing. Not since Sam’s Town has Flowers sounded so at home in song. "Can’t Deny My Love" is a masterclass in '80s production tricks (wooden pan flutes! pitch-wavering synth pads! orchestra hits!) with one of those famous, powerful hooks that made him so likable to begin with. It’s cheesy, but the cluster-bomb of ideas is ultimately what makes you want to go back for repeat listens. Likewise, on the mid-tempo ballad "Never Get You Right" Flowers finds the perfect equation for his sincerity and hyperbole. Again, it’s the hook and his voice that do most of the heavy lifting, but the song works because of a simple idea. You look at someone you know and love (who in Flowers' case is possibly a sex worker) and think how "They’ll turn you into something whether you are it or not/ But they’ll never get you right."
There are more huge Killers-ready songs to fill stadiums or casinos ("Dreams Come True" and "Untangled Love") and hoary love songs ("Still Want You"), but Flowers can’t help but trip over himself as he’s writing. He’s just so daffy. He sings "Friday nights, football stands" and you just pray the sports imagery stops there, but sure enough, he follows it up with "been fumbled by so many hands." It’s always just one move too many. Sometimes he reaches for the cliché like "ship of fools" or "casting...stones" and sometimes he does some gangly inversion of one, like, "She wasn't having anything, no birds or any bees/ Girl, don't go shootin' all the dogs down just cause one's got fleas." At best, Flowers is too wordy and obvious. At worst, he is BruceSpringsteen_ebooks, cobbling together blue-collar American signifiers in odd arrays that appear to have meaning but are really just empty gestures.
"Whether the people want to accept it or not, we might be the best band in the last long time!” said Flowers regarding the Killers in a recent interview. This quote is great because it says everything you need to know about Flowers as a songwriter: He believes deeply in himself by way of absurd and often extra-grammatical reasons. At his essence, Flowers is a big beating heart that under too much scrutiny will shrivel and die. He is bound for excess and Desired Effect delivers on precisely that, at precisely the level you’d imagine a happily married, 33-year-old with millions of dollars in the bank would. Don’t think too much about the heavy-handed religiosity on "The Way It’s Always Been" or the the heartland rock aberration "Diggin' Up the Heart". Just let his words wash over you, subtly, like being tackled by 20 puppies. Flowers gives off charm and stupidity in the same breath and it is as comforting as it is disposable. It’s the mark of a pretty good pop star.
