Three of the month

 

Genres: Alternative/Indie Rock

 

When Brandon Flowers decided to release a solo album many questioned what his new approach would be. Normally, solo albums see a completely new dimension attached to an artist. Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant delved into country rock with Alison Krauss on Raising Sand, New Order’s Bernard Sumner formed a semi-super-group called Electronic with ex-The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr in 1989 and Kele Okereke recently released bland, ridiculous nonsense poetry which his hero Sumner would be proud of on Okereke’s first record, 2010’s The Boxer, without his Bloc Party band-mates.

 

So, what direction would Flowers seek? Well, the Las Vegas-born front-man of The Killers admitted September’s debut solo release was a record his parent four-piece group would be working on and releasing together until they announced a hiatus in 2010 amidst last year’s heavy touring schedule of 2008’s Day & Age and their generally non-stop album-tour run since their formation in 2002.

 

So, Flamingo, a #1 UK album and collection of tales on Flowers’ hometown Las Vegas bares greater resemblance to each of The Killers’ releases than some wonderfully daft-yet-successful concoction involving Motown covers – Phil Collins – or some peculiar dabbling in despairing drivel with vocoders; Neil Young’s Trans in 1982, for instance.

 

Flamingo instead ticks many of The Killers’ trusted boxes. Drummer Ronnie Vannucci is a guest on the album, while Day & Age and Live From The Royal Albert Hall producer Stuart Price – whose eclectic recent work includes records by Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Pet Shop Boys, Scissor Sisters, Keane…believe it or not - has added polish to proceedings once more.

 

Already just those two points highlight the notion that Flamingo is merely another record by The Killers, but essentially, without them. While guitarist Dave Keuning and bassist Mark Stoemer are absent, the album doesn’t suffer as much as you might expect.

 

Instead, Flamingo combines the bustling bleeping electronics of 2004’s Hot Fuss, the epic storytelling romances of 2006’s Sam’s Town and the joyfully grand pretentiousness of 2008’s Day & Age.

 

From the larger-than-life opener, Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas, Flowers is ready to conjure images of his introduction to the way Nevada’s casinos made him feel ‘dirty’ when he lost, his ardent Mormon faith and relinquishing his drinking and smoking habits for the sake of his two children.

 

Flamingo is as much abstract idealistically as it is playful. Only The Young begins in gorgeous sonic synthetic fashion of All These Things That I’ve Done (live) style while shuffling along and talking of “Breaking away” and “Keeping my covers clean” which seemingly points to anti-masturbation.

 

Hard Enough with Jenny Lewis contains more Price keyboard gusto combined with the usual gentle guitar strumming associated with a Killers record and the realistic idea of how it’s been hard enough on a couple in Las Vegas to survive with many bright lights and harlots which could easily bring temptation; this surrounded by a country chorus Sheryl Crow or Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks would be proud of.

 

Playing With Fire delves into those who choose to stay in Vegas and “Hurt somebody tonight” and those who up and leave for an easier and stable lifestyle and addressing pressing religious motifs amidst synthesizer chords a la A Dustland Fairytale and a madly twanging country guitar line.

 

(From Nogales To) Magdalena which recounts a Mexican border pilgrimage that Flowers studied on a documentary he watched on the subject, contains enough melodic tinkles, bustling strums and wavering keyboard knob twiddles to put New Order – The Killers’ key influence and where they adopted their band name from New Order’s Crystal video and song - firmly out of business if they weren't already.

 

But while Magdalena is the second best song on the album and Swallow It contains swathes of reassuring realities of performing to herald Flowers as a social commentary expert rivalling his hero Neil Tennant, Crossfire is the clear winner; even just for the ridiculous guitar solo in the song’s bridge.

 

Crossfire, a #8 UK hit in August, embraces echoing melodic piano and reverb before bursting into life and talks of “Searching for shelter” and “Laying your body down” amidst the hectic nature of Vegas which surrounds Flowers and company.

 

However despite its many bonuses – not to mention the plethora of deluxe version B-sides available on Itunes if you haven’t already dug deep enough – Flamingo can at times be reduced to ridicule with its penchant for sleigh bells and gospel choirs appearing too mad for some of its more precise parts.

 

But while all that is bold and interesting, perhaps there is a need for Flowers to address new issues come either his, or The Killers’ next album release; the latter has been scheduled for 2012.

 

Lyrically the album bounds back into Sam’s Town territory and while Flowers is astute at observing life’s foibles, after a few listens you wonder if there is more he could talk about than just his evergreen topic of Las Vegas.

 

Still, this is not to say Flamingo is a poor record. It documents his life and times without feeling contrived, even if Flowers could maybe just put the Vegas issue to one side on an upcoming release.

 

But all this, in a year where his mother died of brain cancer, rumours of The Killers’ split and then performing with his group for President Obama at the White House in July for a charity gig, highlights Flowers' relentless Bernard Sumner type work ethic and the fact even without some of his band mates, Flowers still finds the will and the passion to create a telling package which at times is nearly as good as The Killers and sometimes, even better.

 

Download: Crossfire, Magdalena, Only The Young, Hard Enough

 

 

 

Genres: ‘Synth-pop’/’Electro-pop’

Anton Corbijn, a newly in-demand film director who rose to fame on 2007’s Control and is set for glory come November and the release of The American starring George Clooney, was once associated more with serious, moody negative photography of hip pop and ‘New Wave’ bands in the 1980s.

 

It seems then that Manchester synth-pop duo Hurts – the latest in an increasing line of artists aiming to recapture the ‘80s zeitgeist – have dabbled in admiring Corbijn’s abilities as a photographer rather than a director when observing the sleeve and inside covers of their #4 UK hit album Happiness.

 

Serious and moody aesthetics couldn’t be more of a contrast then for vocalist Theo Hutchcraft and keyboardist/guitarist Adam Anderson’s album title. But the duo – who rose to fame after finishing fourth in BBC Introducing’s music panel for 2010 and whose album was the fastest selling debut record of the year – add sprinkles of production joy amidst their sometimes awkward songwriting.

 

Indeed, the opening four tracks on Happiness are enough to stir you from your slumber with a mixture of fizzing synth arpeggios, in-your-face orchestration and mid-Atlantic warbling from Hutchcraft.

 

The alluring Silver Lining begins with pots and pans percussion and a pounding bassline before embracing the lyrical and writing structural doom of a Rob Dougan record - even if not quite as good - and talking about not “Hiding from the things you’ve done” and “When the world surrounds you, I’ll make it go away”.

 

Meanwhile, the superb #21 UK hit single Wonderful Life begins in tick-tock West End Girls meets Vienna fashion and bursts into life during the chorus with soaring strings and clattering rhythms; a common theme on Happiness.

 

Blood Tears & Gold could easily have been out of Johnny Hates Jazz or Black’s ‘80s back catalogue, but despite its wet lyrical delivery, the chorus again is a winner and the song generally, is a decent grower.

 

Sunday is a fist-pumping delight, which marauds through content of ‘lonely nights’ and lost love with relentless string arpeggios, pulsing rhythms and basslines evoking memories of Depeche Mode, New Order and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark in their imperious pomp.

 

But after the opening four songs, Happiness becomes a patchier affair. There appears a peculiar tendency to mix in pseudo X-Factor/1990s boy-band pop on the latter part of the record, which although never quite explodes into the sickly sweet nature of Simon Cowell or Gary Barlow, it threatens to do so on occasion with its repetitive ballads, unimaginative lyrics and blow-your-house-down choruses.

 

The best of these too common ‘experiments’ are Stay and the intuitively penned duet with Kylie Minogue on Devotion; the latter another electronic collaboration the Australian songstress has had with a dry synth-pop duo after Neil Tennant performed with Minogue on Pet Shop Boys’ In Denial which helped bring her back to mainstream attention.

 

Though while luckily for Minogue she isn’t likely to fade into obscurity anytime soon like 1999 threatened to do before Tennant rescued her, Hurts – which could be an apt title if they continue to release too many ballads – could lose attention fast if they fail to recognise what they’re best at; optimistic storming electro-pop stunners.

 

Indeed, the largely ignored 2010 single Better Than Love is an example of great energetic production and a chanting chorus to put Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the late Freddie Mercury into dancing mode and is a superb song and a welcome break during the latter half of Happiness.

 

In truth though, Happiness is a decent record. But while lyrical issues need to be more diverse than the sometimes mundane cliched self-addressed issues of love and failed relationships and the need for a greater overall energy on their next record, Hurts have done enough with some beautiful orchestral production and synthetic swathes to win the hearts of the 'teeny bopper', young adult and midlife-crisis ‘80s nostalgic men and women lusting for sometimes edgy pop music.

 

Fans of Keane’s latter work, Hot Chip, Mika, Owl City and Robbie Williams and general '80s synth-pop should like what is in places a triumph, even if in style rather than substance; which is hopefully yet to come.

 

Download: Wonderful Life, Sunday, Better Than Love, Silver Lining

 

Genres: ‘Synth-pop’/’Electro-pop’

 

To have The Killers and in-vogue Mercury Prize winners The XX as two of your fans is tribute enough to an act who return to popular music with an album release for the first time in 14 years and are hoping to show those they have influenced a thing or too.

 

Ok, so while Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark's History of Modern sounds mostly nothing like a Killers or XX record, that isn’t really the point. Recovering from a seemingly acrimonious point of no return, Liverpool’s Andy McCluskey, Paul Humphreys, Martin Cooper and Malcolm Holmes decided to bury the hatchet upon 2008’s Architecture & Morality tour and gradually returned to work after their 1990 split amidst OMD’s newfound US success with 1986’s #4 Billboard 100 hit If You Leave – made famous for its appearance in John Hughes’ teen flick Pretty In Pink.

 

But unlike Simple Minds’ (Don’t You) Forget About Me – also used in the film and propelling the Scottish ‘New Wave’ band to fame in the UK and US – or any record by Tears For Fears in the mid-1980s, popularity didn’t really do that much for OMD back home.

 

Aside from a minor renaissance in 1991 with the solid #3 UK album Sugar Tax – which comprised of just McCluskey who continued the OMD name but essentially as a solo artist with a few additional producers – the Wirral Peninsula intellectuals who once wrote an entire album about politics and engineering on 1983’s Dazzle Ships of which its track ABC Auto-Industry was bizarrely sampled by hip-hop star Kid Cudi last year, succumbed to gradual decline and an eventual split.

 

However despite their early ‘80s golden era of hit singles like the Hiroshima bombing plane story of Enola Gay, the obsession with Joan of Arc on Maid of Orleans (Waltz Joan of Arc) and Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans) and the success of Souvenir all as distant a memory as the knitted jumpers McCluskey once donned in OMD videos, the band appear settled and concentrated on recapturing their sound and success for a modern audience.

 

History of Modern then was aimed at combining the success of their Architecture & Morality era and Sugar Tax efforts without trying to sound too much like either.

 

In this sense, the album about modernism of ‘thought, character or practice and philosophy of modern art’ according to the band’s sleeve notes evokes images of Pop Art, Andy Warhol, David Bowie, Kraftwerk and BMWs; apparently.

 

For such a wry title, it is apt that History of Modern combines the band’s views of ‘The Future’ as it was to them then when they formed in 1978 and the progression of how ‘The Future’ has panned out since.

 

Musically at least not much has changed, apart from a few successful output tweaks to suit a modern audience and seemingly a new market while simultaneously not alienating their old faithful. Lyrically at times however, McCluskey has seemingly not managed to shake off the tendency from delivering occasional swathes of the mundane; not surprising when you consider he created and introduced girl group Atomic Kitten to the world.

 

However, luckily OMD sound nothing like their fellow Merseyside mates. Instead from the opener, New Babies, New Toys which fizzes melodically and clunks along in Hot Chip meets New Order style and delivers the idea of the new technology and ideology impressed upon people, OMD aim to please.

 

The single If You Want It is a winner from the start with its choral entrance amidst a bustling bassline and rhythm with melodies surrounding every corner of your ear making up for the at times basic lyrics of finding love and discovering new pleasures.

 

The two part title track combines a mixture of typically choral harmonies and synth bass pulsating wonder with panning arpeggios and subtle chord changes while recording successes and failures seemingly of the idols the band admired and their own tribulations - including their split - and works, to great success.

 

Other highlights from the album – which is split in two sides in LP or cassette fashion but instead on a CD unless you go to Itunes of course – include the grandeur of RFWK which has a Chicane-like pulse, the seemingly Kraftwerk-esque Radioactivity/Trans-Europe Express/The Robots combination on the track The Future, The Past, And Forever After and the emphatically catchy and string-laden Sister Marie Says.

 

While other notable mentions should go to Green and eight minute closer The Right Side? – which is Kraftwerk in excelsis – History of Modern on occasion strays too much towards the ridiculous and contrived – take Sometimes or Pulse with its orgasmic delivery and its chorus conjuring up images of Empire of The Sun’s Swordfish Hotkiss Night meeting Goldfrapp or Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears for a glammed up bit of drag fun.

 

Though when it works OMD can sound like the pop equivalent of Kraftwerk. Furthermore, they have eclipsed Simple Minds’ 2009 comeback and are nearer to A-Ha’s return last year with a mixture of subtlety, thought and care in arrangement plentiful and have adapted to a modern sound which could easily have been a tricky hurdle.

 

Perhaps they have been listening to recent Keane tracks, Owl City and Empire Of The Sun mixed on occasion somewhat bizarrely with the frenetic tendencies of Calvin Harris, Daft Punk, Grum and Hot Chip, as for whatever reason this conceptually modernist album sounds refreshingly, modern.

 

Download: If You Want It, History of Modern Part I, The Future, The Past And Forever After, Sister Marie Says